diff --git a/share/jupyter/voila/templates/base/static/main.js b/share/jupyter/voila/templates/base/static/main.js
index d08be7435..324e6023f 100644
--- a/share/jupyter/voila/templates/base/static/main.js
+++ b/share/jupyter/voila/templates/base/static/main.js
@@ -50,8 +50,13 @@ require([window.voila_js_url || 'static/voila'], function(voila) {
 
         async function init() {
             // it seems if we attach this to early, it will not be called
+            const matches = document.cookie.match('\\b_xsrf=([^;]*)\\b');
+            const xsrfToken = (matches && matches[1]) || '';
             window.addEventListener('beforeunload', function (e) {
-                kernel.shutdown();
+                const xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
+                xhttp.open("DELETE", `/api/kernels/${kernel.id}`, false);
+                xhttp.setRequestHeader('X-XSRFToken', xsrfToken);
+                xhttp.send();
                 kernel.dispose();
             });
             await widgetManager.build_widgets();