Seattle Kraken Season Chatter 22/23 (Season # 2)

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 20

 

Seattle 3 NYR 2 OT

 

Schultz scores 2, leads Kraken to 3-2 OT win over Rangers

 

 

 

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ByAP

Updated: 2 hours ago

SEATTLE -- — Justin Schultz scored his second goal of the game 3:39 into overtime and the Seattle Kraken snapped a two-game skid with a 3-2 win over the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

 

It was the first multigoal game for Schultz, who is in his 12th NHL season. The 32-year-old defenseman has three goals this season.

 

“I liked the way we responded in overtime,” Schultz said. “We found a way to keep going to get the two points.”

 

Jared McCann also scored for Seattle. Martin Jones made 28 saves.

 

“We had a great response and obviously got a great goal in overtime,” Jones said.

 

Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin finished with 29 saves.

 

“We just stayed with it,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s poise and possession. When we didn’t have the puck, the guys were organized and pushed things to the outside, checked well and gave us the opportunity to make the game-winning play.”

 

After a scoreless first period, Seattle built a 16-5 edge in shots on goal as the teams finished the frame tied at 1.

 

“First period was great, second period was awful and the third period was pretty even,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “There was some good stuff, but there was some bad stuff in the second period and we got away from what we did in the first period.”

 

Schultz scored his first goal at 9:27 of the third to give Seattle a 2-1 lead. Trocheck responded at 18:06, tying the score with the Rangers’ second power-play goal and sending the game to overtime.

 

“Big goal by the power play at the end there to get us a point,” captain Jacob Trouba said. “Igor played well. We know we can play our game for longer periods of time. That’s what we've got to do, and that’s what we’ll do for the rest of the road trip.”

 

Seattle won in OT for the first time in four tries this season.

 

“It was just a little bit more structured,” Schultz said. “The three we lost were a little bit all over the place. ... (We) practiced it. I thought you noticed that tonight. We did a much better job.”

 

McCann scored the Kraken’s opening goal early in the first period. It was his seventh of the season. He got assists from Will Borgen and Jordan Eberle, who has four goals and three assists in his last five home games dating to Oct. 27 against Vancouver.

 

Zibanejad, who has points in nine of his last 10 games, scored a power-play goal at 14:58 of the first. Seven of Zibanejad’s 10 goals this season have come on the power play. He has 75 power-play goals since joining the Rangers in 2016-17.

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 21

 

Seattle 3 LA 2

 

Eberle scores in OT, Kraken beat Kings 3-2 for 7th win in 9

 

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ByAP

Updated: 10 hours ago

SEATTLE -- — Jordan Eberle scored at 2:23 of overtime to lift the Seattle Kraken to a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.

 

Jared McCann and Daniel Sprong also scored for Seattle, which has played in three straight overtime games —winning the last two. Martin Jones had 27 saves to help the Kraken improve to 7-1-1 in their last nine games.

 

“I think its important to play these games and feel comfortable,” Eberle said. “I think we’re doing a better job of that. You know, once you get into the postseason a lot of games are close. You have to feel comfortable in uncomfortable situations, and this is just a good test to do that.”

 

Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore scored for the Kings, and Cal Petersen stopped 25 shots. Los Angeles was playing for the second straight night to finish a four-game road trip. The Kings lost to the Canucks 4-1 on Friday.

 

“Especially on a back-to-back, you obviously want to do everything you can to tighten it up and make it a hard-fought game and give us a chance down the stretch,” Petersen said. “We did go into overtime, but obviously disappointing not to get the extra point.”

 

Midway through the extra period, Eberle led a 2-on-1 breakaway and put his shot past Petersen for his fifth of the season. Eberle also had an assist in the game.

 

McCann opened the scoring 4:42 into the game. Eberle’s backhand shot was kicked away by Petersen, with the puck going straight to McCann at the bottom of the right circle and he scored his team-leading seventh of the season and the 100th of his career.

 

“It was a different overtime tonight," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "We didn’t have the puck a whole lot, but we defended really well. We didn’t give up anything threatening. ... We took advantage of their defenseman diving in as we punched that puck past them, and that creates the odd man situation.”

 

The Kings tied the game with 1:08 left in the second period. Danault’s shot bounced up off Jones, who seemed to lose track of the puck. Danault rushed in and hit the puck out of the air for the goal.

 

The teams traded goals on the same power play early in the third. Just 35 seconds into the period — and 15 seconds after Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty was called for hooking — Moore ended up on a short-handed breakaway and got the puck past Jones for his sixth to give the Kings a 2-1 lead.

 

It took just 18 seconds for Seattle to tie it again, as Sprong was open on the left circle and buried the power-play goal for his third.

 

“That can really flip momentum. That can be a switch on the game, and the fact the next power play group went out there and was able to answer was really important,” Hakstol said. “That was obviously a huge part of the game to get it back right away.”

 

The Kraken had lost their first three overtime games this season before winning the past two in a row. Los Angeles has now won three of their five overtime games.

 

“I thought it was a really hard, heavy game for both teams,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “Really evenly played. We made the last mistake and they capitalized on it.”

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 22

 

Seattle 8 Sharks 5

 

Kraken set club record for goals in 8-5 win over Sharks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ByAP

Updated: 3 hours ago

SEATTLE -- — Jaden Schwartz scored twice and the surging Seattle Kraken set a team record for goals Wednesday night, overcoming Timo Meier's hat trick in an 8-5 victory over the San Jose Sharks.

 

Playing their second NHL season, the Kraken got goals from a franchise-high seven players to win their third straight. Martin Jones made 22 saves as Seattle moved to 8-1-1 in its last 10 games.

 

“That was fun for the fans. It stunk for the coaches,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said, half-joking. “This isn’t the way you draw it up, but it’s still a win and you’ve got to find different ways to win hockey games. This one had that feel right from the go tonight.”

 

Andre Burakovsky, Vince Dunn, Ryan Donato, Jamie Oleksiak, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Matty Beniers also scored for the Kraken. Schwartz put his second goal of the night into an empty net late.

 

“It’s kind of nice to see us chip in offensively. Not that you want every game to be run-and-gun like that, but we were able to pull through,” Oleksiak said. “Any way you can squeak one out, that’s huge. But I heard it’s like a Kraken record or something, most goals in a game? So I’m sure the fans enjoyed that.”

 

Meier's three goals gave him a team-leading 12. It was his first hat trick of the season and fourth of his career.

 

Logan Couture and Alexander Barabanov also scored for the Sharks.

 

“Obviously disappointing,” Meier said. “To come back, and then we just gave up too much. We were turning too many pucks over. We had some parts of the game we played well but it just wasn’t consistent enough for 60 minutes. I think that was a winnable game. We just shot ourselves in the foot.”

 

It was a back-and-forth game throughout. San Jose led 2-1 after the first period. In the second, Seattle scored three times in less than five minutes to pull ahead, but the Sharks tied it 4-all a minute into the third before the Kraken pulled away.

 

Bjorkstrand gave the Kraken the lead for good about three minutes into the third with his second goal of the season. Schwartz scored the Kraken’s season-high sixth goal 59 seconds later to give Seattle a 6-4 lead.

Meier pulled the Sharks within one with his third goal of the game before Beniers and Schwartz capped the scoring.

 

The Sharks got the game’s first goal just more than four minutes in when Couture made a nice deflection in front on a shot from Nick Cicek. The teams also traded power-play goals in the opening period.

 

Dunn, Donato and Oleksiak scored in the second-period flurry for Seattle before Meier ended the run when he got behind the Kraken defense and easily finished a breakaway for his second goal of the game.

 

“It was a game going back and forth a lot. We were doing a really good job of taking care of chances we created and chances they gave us. It was really good to see so many players contributing,” Burakovsky said. “I think we need to shut down some areas a little bit better. I don’t think we should give up as many goals as we did, but overall we got two points and a great win.”

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 23

 

Seattle 4 VGK 2

 

Kraken get 1st win over Golden Knights, Burakovsky scores 2

 

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ByAP

Updated: 5 hours ago

LAS VEGAS -- — Andre Burakovsky scored twice and Philipp Grubauer celebrated his 31st birthday by making 20 saves in the Seattle Kraken’s 4-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night.

 

The battle between the Pacific Division’s top teams also happened to be a showdown of the NHL’s most recent expansion squads, and marked Seattle’s first win over the Golden Knights since it entered the league last season. The Kraken, who are now winless against only eight teams in the league, have won four in a row, including three straight against intradivision foes.

 

Ryan Donato and Jordan Eberle added goals for Seattle, which improved to 6-1-1 on the road.

 

Nic Roy and Phil Kessel scored for Vegas, while Adin Hill stopped 24 shots.

 

Burakovsky, who came into the game with two career goals against Vegas, scored both goals with vicious snipes on Hill, once in the first period to give the Kraken a two-goal lead and again in the second to put Seattle back on top after Vegas tied the game.

 

“It’s obviously a huge win,” said Burakovsky, who had his second straight multi-point game, and third of the season. “They’re ahead of us. We want to chase them down. It was an important game. We lost last time against them. So, we’re hungry for the win today. It was good to get it done. Obviously, it’s always to help the team get on the board.”

 

The Kraken dominated early, outshooting the Golden Knights 8-2 and opening a two-goal lead in the first period.

 

“They were quicker than us, they won a lot more races, one-on-one battles, they executed better than us — they were just the better team,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Let’s call it what it is, from start to finish they outplayed us. We can look at different areas and why and what, but we weren’t ready to play, that always falls on the coach. I gotta get the guys ready to play.”

 

Donato started it off less than three minutes into the game with a nifty move around Hill to put it home, and Burakovsky made it 2-0 when he grabbed a pass from Adam Larsson and fired a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

The Golden Knights cut Seattle’s lead in half when Roy was on the doorstep for a rebound and punched it in the net in his first game back after missing three games with a lower-body injury.

 

Playing in his 1,004th consecutive game, Kessel snapped in Shea Theodore’s touch pass near the bottom of the right circle moments later to tie the game at 2.

 

Burakovsky put the Kraken back on top when he grabbed a pass from Jamie Oleksiak, skated through the right circle, and snapped a wrist shot top shelf over Hill’s glove.

 

“His second goal of the game was a big one,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said about Burakovsky. “That was a nice play off the entry. He found a way inside. He found the extra step to get into a better shooting spot. He found the short side. It was a good night for him.”

Eberle provided the announced gathering of 18,119 with the highlight of the night after he was initially stopped by Hill, but then somehow reached back and was able to flip the puck up and in to extend Seattle’s lead back to two goals.

“We needed two points,” Hakstol said. “We’re not looking for a measuring stick. We’re playing the game. We’re playing to win games. They’re an important two points on the road.”

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 24

 

Seattle 5 Ducks 4

 

Kraken rally to beat Ducks 5-4 for 5th straight win

 

 

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ByAP

Updated: 6 hours ago

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- — Matty Beniers had a goal and two assists, Daniel Sprong scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and the Seattle Kraken tied a franchise record with their fifth consecutive victory, 5-4 over the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night.

 

Jared McCann, Alex Wennberg and Vince Dunn scored in the first period for the streaking Kraken, who then blew a two-goal lead late in the second period before rallying for their 10th win in 12 games. Martin Jones made 25 saves in his 11th victory of the season for Seattle, which has lost in regulation just once over the past four weeks during a surge that began with the 2-year-old Kraken’s first five-game winning streak.

 

“You want to play a perfect 60 (minutes),” Sprong said. “Is it going to happen every game? Probably not, but good teams still find a way to win.”

 

Troy Terry scored on his bobblehead night and Derek Grant scored in his return from a 10-game injury absence for the last-place Ducks, who capitalized on the Kraken’s sloppiness to score a season-high three power play goals. Mason McTavish and Adam Henrique scored on man-advantages 1:19 apart late in the second to tie it in Anaheim’s highest-scoring performance in 10 games.

 

Trevor Zegras had three assists for the Ducks, and John Gibson stopped 14 shots before leaving early in the third period with an apparent injury. Anaheim has lost five of six.

 

“Through all of this adversity, challenges, they keep fighting for more,” Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. “That says a lot about the men in that room, that they don't have much quit in them.”

 

The Kraken are not only winning, but scoring at a prolific pace: Seattle has 23 goals during its five-game surge. The Ducks are the NHL's worst defensive team, and Seattle capitalized early and often while improving to 7-1-1 on the road this season despite giving up three power play goals for the first time this year.

 

“We want to be a little bit better on special teams, but this is a really tough team to play against,” Wennberg said of the Ducks, who are 31st in the NHL in power-play scoring percentage. “For us to finish and get the job done here is really good.”

 

McCann scored 33 seconds after the opening faceoff, and Seattle led 3-1 on Dunn's fourth goal late in the first period despite Terry's ninth goal of the season on the power play. The Kraken led 4-2 late in the third before careless penalties led to back-to-back power play goals by McTavish — who converted a sublime cross-ice pass from Zegras — and Henrique.

 

Sprong, the former Ducks forward, put the Kraken ahead 3:41 into the third after an Anaheim turnover. Anthony Stolarz replaced Gibson, who went to the dressing room immediately after the goal with an apparent injury incurred when Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk fell on him during the play.

 

“When you're a rebuilding team, it's every day there's something to work on,” Eakins said. “We're trying to fix every part of the game.”

 

INJURED

 

Seattle forward Morgan Geekie skated shakily off the ice in the second period after colliding headfirst with teammate Adam Larsson. He didn't return.

 

Anaheim defenseman John Klingberg missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury.

 

Eakins provided no postgame update on Gibson's condition because he hadn't met with the goalie.

 

 

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 25

 

Seattle 9 LA 8

 

Burakovsky's OT goal gives Kraken wild 9-8 win over Kings

By DAN GREENSPAN

Associated Press

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) Andre Burakovsky had two goals, including the winner in overtime, and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Los Angeles Kings 9-8 on Tuesday night in the highest-scoring NHL game this season.

Burakovsky scored on the power play at 2:08 of the extra session to give Seattle the second six-game winning streak in franchise history.

Matty Beniers and Jared McCann each had two goals in the highest-scoring game of the Kraken's two-year existence. Alex Wennberg, Daniel Sprong and Oliver Bjorkstrand also scored, and Martin Jones made 27 saves.

Gabe Vilardi had two goals for the Kings, but Cal Petersen allowed four goals on 16 shots after replacing Jonathan Quick early in the second period. Anze Kopitar, Viktor Arvidsson, Carl Grundstrom, Adrian Kempe, Sean Durzi and Mikey Anderson also scored for Los Angeles.

Durzi cut it to 8-7 with 8:16 remaining in the third period, and Anderson tied it with 6:21 to go.

With each team having been involved in a 13-goal game this season, they kept up their high-scoring ways to top that total by the end of the second period.

Quick was pulled after McCann got his second goal for a 5-4 advantage at 4:56, his fifth conceded on 14 shots, before Kempe equalized less than two minutes later.

But the decision to change goaltenders proved costly, as Petersen was at fault for the score that put the Kraken back in front.

Petersen made a blocker save on Sprong's shot but didn't realize the puck went high into the air before coming down in his crease, landing on his skate and tumbling into the net at 7:27.

Bjorkstrand then beat Petersen with a wrist shot from the high slot under the crossbar to make it 7-5 midway through the middle period.

Vilardi picked up his second goal with 4:19 left, but Burakovsky struck back with 22 seconds to go, restoring a two-goal lead at 8-6.

The first period was practically a game unto itself, producing a 3-3 tie after 20 minutes with Kopitar scoring 16 seconds in, two power-play goals per team on their four combined opportunities, and Kraken defenseman Justin Schultz picking up the secondary assist on all three of his club's goals to set a franchise record for most assists in a period.

WORTH NOTING

Kings F Kevin Fiala had four assists, and D Drew Doughty had three. . Kraken F Jordan Eberle had three assists.

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 26

 

Seattle 3 Caps 2 OT

 

Matty Beniers scores in OT, Kraken rally past Capitals 3-2

 

 

0:47

 

Matty Beniers' goal beats the Capitals in OT

Matty Beniers scores goal for Kraken

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ByAP

Updated: 2 hours ago

SEATTLE -- — Jaden Schwartz was grabbing a drink of water when he looked up and saw Matty Beniers breaking in alone on goal.

 

Seattle's rookie wasted no time sending the Kraken to their seventh straight victory.

 

“I looked up and he was on a breakaway. It happened fast, but they were hungry off the faceoff,” Schwartz said.

 

Beniers scored seven seconds into overtime and the Kraken rallied to beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 on Thursday night.

 

Beniers won a faceoff scrum to begin the overtime, got a tip from Andre Burakovsky and beat Darcy Kuemper for his 10th goal of the season to extend Seattle’s franchise-record winning streak.

Per the NHL, it was the fastest overtime goal by a rookie in a regular-season game.

 

“It’s all about your your battle level and your 50/50 puck wins and they created that,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “It was a 50/50 bouncing puck, we won that, (Burakovsky) did a good job and Matty had some good opportunities tonight and he finished that one at the right time.”

 

Coming off a 10-1-1 November, the Kraken overcame a 2-0 deficit to keep their streak rolling. Yanni Gourde scored with 2:27 left in regulation, jamming a rebound past Kuemper. Seattle controlled play for most of the third period and finally got rewarded with Gourde’s third goal of the season that forced overtime.

 

Schwartz added a power-play goal for Seattle in the second period when he flicked the rebound of Vince Dunn’s shot from the point past Kuemper.

 

“We've been doing a good job of finding ways to win and staying with it,” Schwartz said. “A lot of momentum swings in games and we’re doing a pretty good job of managing that.”

 

Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves and was solid all night facing his former team. It was just his second start since coming off injured reserve.

 

“The first period was a little tough, I think two goals on three or four shots. Not how you want to start things off,” Grubauer said. “The second period went well and I think that's a period I needed personally for myself to get back into this.”

Martin Fehervary and Conor Sheary scored first period goals, but the Capitals were unable to withstand Seattle’s pressure in the second and third periods.

 

“Not enough of the good stuff tonight,” Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. “Not enough of the right things.”

 

Fehervary scored at 7:36 and Sheary added a power-play goal with 5:56 to go to give the Capitals a 2-0 lead. Alex Ovechkin assisted on both goals, the fourth time in five games Washington’s captain had multiple points.

Kuemper finished with 22 saves for Washington.

 

“Our game has definitely been trending upwards. Tonight we might might not have had our best stuff, or all our legs but we got up to the lead and unfortunately couldn’t hang on for the two,” Kuemper said.

 

WELCOME HOME

 

TJ Oshie played near his hometown for the first time in his career having missed Washington’s trip to Seattle last season due to injury. Oshie didn’t waste becoming involved in the action, getting into a fight with Seattle’s Yanni Gourde during the first period. It was the first fight for Oshie since early in the 2021-22 season and his second career fight against Gourde, tangling once previously when Gourde was in Tampa Bay.

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 27

 

Seattle 1 Panthers 5

 

Panthers snap Kraken's seven-game win streak with 5-1 win

 

 

0:37

 

Aleksi Heponiemi scores goal vs. Kraken

Aleksi Heponiemi scores goal vs. Kraken

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ByAP

Updated: 3 hours ago

SEATTLE -- — Carter Verhaeghe's first-period scoring flurry and a standout performance in goal from Spencer Knight brought the longest active win streak in the NHL to a halt.

 

Verhaeghe scored twice 26 seconds apart in the first period, Matthew Tkachuk scored his 12th goal and had an assist, and the Florida Panthers snapped Seattle’s seven-game win streak with a 5-1 win over the Kraken on Saturday night.

Seattle couldn’t solve Knight other than Jared McCann’s goal early in the second period. Knight made 36 saves and the Panthers won consecutive games for the first time in nearly a month.

 

“Just solid, square to the puck. Anything that got away from him he had an answer for,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said of Knight. “One or two really really good saves, cross-seam saves that are hard to make. Gave us a nice bit of confidence and calm back there.”

 

Florida needed Knight to be at his best because of injuries. Florida had just 10 forwards available for most of the game after Patric Hornqvist was helped off the ice in the first period. Defender Radko Gudas also played just two shifts and had 2:08 of ice time.

 

Maurice said he didn't know the extent of the injuries but both would need to physicians.

 

“It’s a tough building to win in and it’s a very good hockey team. A lot of guys stepped up in different ways tonight for a win and that's what you need on the road,” Florida defenseman Marc Staal said.

 

Verhaeghe got Florida off to a perfect start scoring at 13:00 of the first period after Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer slid too far across his net and was run into by Staal leaving the goal open. Seattle challenged for goaltender interference but the goal was upheld and Florida went on the power play.

 

Florida capitalized and Verhaeghe scored his second moments later. Verhaeghe has 14 goals in 25 games and has five games with at least two goals this season.

 

 

“It's gives us life on the bench anytime you get the first goal in a game,” Verhaeghe said. “It gives us a huge advantage and we took advantage tonight.”

Tkachuk assisted on both of Verhaeghe’s goals and added his own in the second period on the power play, tipping Aaron Ekblad’s shot from the point. Tkachuk’s goal was one of two shots Florida had in the second period as Seattle continually peppered Knight with shots.

 

Aleksi Heponiemi and Gustav Forsling both scored in the third period, and Sam Bennett had three assists for Florida. Three of the Panthers' five goals came on the power play.

 

Grubauer made 23 saves for Seattle.

 

Seattle failed to score at least two goals for the first time since being shut out by Minnesota on Nov. 11.

 

“There weren't very many part of our game that were very good tonight. That's going to be a tough way to win a hockey game,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said.

 

McCann’s goal at 1:53 was his 11th of the season and came on a rebound after Knight stopped Jordan Eberle’s shot from his knees.

 

But Knight was otherwise excellent. His most important save came in the closing seconds of the first period, denying Seattle rookie Matty Beniers with his skate.

 

“This was not one or two people that weren’t quite good enough. We were all below the bar tonight,” Hakstol said.

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 28

 

Seattle 2 Habs 4

 

Canadiens score 2 goals in 7 seconds, beat Kraken 4-2

 

 

0:45

 

Josh Anderson scores fresh off the face-off to make it 3-1 Canadiens

Josh Anderson scores goal vs. Kraken

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ByAP

Updated: 2 hours ago

SEATTLE -- — Cole Caufield and Josh Anderson scored seven seconds apart in the second period and the Montreal Canadiens snapped a two-game skid with a 4-2 win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night.

 

Canadiens rookie Johnathan Kovacevic and Seattle rookie Shane Wright scored their first NHL goals.

 

Kovacevic was acquired by Montreal in October after being placed on waivers by Winnipeg. He has found regular playing time with the Canadiens this season, and has three assists to go with his goal.

 

“It’s been a dream come true, really,” Kovacevic said. “It’s been something that I’ve worked forward to. Everyone has a different path, and I feel like I’ve taken kind of a long road to get here. And that kind of comes with more gratitude. I have a lot of appreciation for where I’m at.”

 

After Kovacevic put Montreal on the board at 12:56 in the first period, Wright tied it at 15:30.

 

It was Wright's first game back after a five-game conditioning stint with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds. Wright’s goal came against a Montreal squad that passed on him with the No. 1 pick of the 2022 NHL draft. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde assisted.

 

“It’s a great feeling,” Wright said. “I don’t really remember a whole lot of the play; I kind of blacked out at the celebration there. (I) was super excited, obviously.”

 

Caufield and Anderson answered in the second, scoring at 2:05 and 2:12, respectively, to give Montreal a 3-1 lead. Nick Suzuki assisted on Caulfield’s score, and Christian Dvorak and Juraj Slafkovsky picked up assists on Anderson's goal.

The Canadiens added to their lead at 18:40 in the second when Rem Pitlick made it 4-1, with assists going to Joel Edmundson and Jake Evans.

 

Seattle answered with one second left in the period, as Jared McCann scored with an assist from Andre Burakovsky.

 

Jake Allen made 31 saves for Montreal.

 

Seattle goaltender Martin Jones stopped 12 shots.

 

Though the Canadiens went into the final period with a two-goal lead, Allen wasn’t about to relax.

 

“There’s not many leads that are safe anymore,” he said. “It’s not like it was 10 years ago when you’re up three goals, you pretty much lock it down. This game is all about offense. You’ve just got to be able to manage the game better, play the game within the game, and I thought we did a better job in the third period tonight with that."

 

The Kraken’s two consecutive losses come on the heels of their franchise-record seven-game winning streak, which ended with a 5-1 home loss to Florida on Saturday. Seattle completed a 1-2 homestand, while Montreal went 2-2 on its four-game trip.

After a tough 7-6 loss Monday to Vancouver in overtime, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was happy his team bounced back.

 

"We found a way to stay in it, get a point, and then get back at it tonight,” St. Louis said. “Was it a perfect game plan for us? Absolutely not. We found a way, and that is what this league is all about.”

 

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 29

 

Seattle 1 Caps 4

 

Ovechkin, Mantha lead Capitals to 4-1 win over Kraken

 

 

0:45

 

Fans chant 'Ovi' as he slings in 796th goal on empty net with 4 seconds left

Alex Ovechkin collects the puck and slings in his 796th career goal on an empty net against the Kraken.

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ByAP

Updated: 7 hours ago

 

WASHINGTON -- — Anthony Mantha and Alex Ovechkin each had a goal and assist and the Washington Capitals beat the Seattle Kraken 4-1 on Friday night.

 

Marcus Johansson and Lars Eller also scored and Charlie Lindgren stopped 25 shots as the Capitals won three games in a row for the first time this season. Eller and Ovechkin sealed the with empty-netters in the final 1:06, with Ovechkin's marking his 796th career goal.

 

“We've just played amazing hockey,” Lindgren said. “Honestly, I think it's been fun to play goal for this team all year long, but especially last few games, we've been playing incredible. (We) can't get complacent, we just got to keep fighting, keep long going to work.”

 

Adam Larsson scored and Philipp Grubauer finished with 34 saves as Seattle lost its third straight.

 

The Kraken were outshot 12-6 in the first period but got on the scoreboard first as Larsson got his first goal in 20 games off a point shot through traffic with 2:09 left in the period for the Kraken's lone goal. It marked the 18th time in 29 games this season the Capitals gave up the first goal of the game.

 

“Just go back to work. Tough stretches, they’re part of this,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “You have stretches where you play well and things go your way. You have tough stretches on the schedule where you’ve got to just step up and go play good hockey. Our group is strong in the dressing room. Remain confident, do better than we did tonight.”

 

After getting numerous high-danger chances, Washington finally tied it at 5:20 of the second as Mantha knocked in the rebound of Matt Irwin's shot, putting it off Jamie Oleksiak's skate and in. It was Mantha's seventh goal of the season and first in four games.

 

“Everyone was fired up... it’s just a big win and big points for our team right now,” Mantha said.

 

Shortly after recording his first NHL assist on Mantha's goal, Alex Alexeyev left the game after taking an elbow to the head from Oleksiak, who received a match penalty. The Capitals went on a 5-minute power play and Johansson scored his sixth to give Washington the 2-1 lead with 6:45 left in the middle period.

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 30

 

Seattle 5 Panthers 2

 

Burakovsky helps Kraken beat Panthers 5-2

 

 

0:50

 

Chris Tierney nets goal vs. Kraken

Chris Tierney nets goal vs. Kraken

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ByAP

9 hours ago

 

SUNRISE, Fla. -- — Andre Burakovsky scored the go-ahead goal midway through the second period and the Seattle Kraken beat the Florida Panthers 5-2 on Sunday night.

 

Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle, Daniel Sprong and Yanni Gourde also scored to help Seattle snap a three-game losing streak. Martin Jones finished with 23 saves as the Kraken improved to 3-1 all-time against the Panthers — including 2-0 in Florida.

 

“We wanted to get back to who we are,’’ Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had lost three in a row so we needed that 60-minute performance in order to push back in the right direction. Our players did that. ... I thought we were pretty consistent, our special teams were solid and contributed to the win. Goaltending was solid. That’s what it takes to get a good road win.”

 

Eric Staal and Chris Tierney scored for the Panthers, who have lost two straight and three of four. Sergei Bobrovsky had 27 saves while starting for the second straight night with Spencer Knight out due to illness.

 

“There were an awful lot of difficulty in some basic things in our game,’’ Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We had trouble moving the puck. There are physical turnovers and mental ones and we had a little bit of both. … As the game wore on, you saw the mental aspect. We started a little bit off then they pushed and I don’t think we found a way to get better during the game.”

 

Seattle opened the scoring 1:04 into the game when Beniers scored on a turnover deep in the Florida zone. It was his 11th of the season.

 

The Panthers tied the score at 7:34 of the second when Staal scored his first goal in more than 18 months. The veteran center, who did not play in the NHL last season, signed a one-year deal with Florida in October.

 

Burakovsky then gave Seattle the lead for good 1:31 later with his 10th of the season.

 

Florida was unable to tie the score on a power-play chance in the third and Eberle scored his seventh soon after it ended to give the Kraken a 3-1 lead at 7:15.

 

“I think it was a much better effort than we had seen lately,’’ Gourde said. “It was a much more complete game, our compete level was higher. Everything was better tonight.”

 

The Panthers’ Ryan Lomberg was hit with a two-minute penalty for roughing and a five-minute major for boarding a little more than four minutes later. The Kraken took advantage as Sprong scored on the power play with 4:51 left for his sixth.

 

Gourde scored an empty-netter with 2:38 left to make it 5-1.

 

Tierney capped the scoring with his second with 1:17 remaining.

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 31

 

Seattle 2 TB 6

 

Lightning score 3 goals 3:23 apart in 2nd, beat Kraken 6-2

 

 

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ByAP

7 hours ago

 

TAMPA, Fla. -- — Corey Perry, Brayden Point and Ross Colton scored 3:23 apart in the second period, Nikita Kucherov had three assists and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Seattle Kraken 6-2 on Tuesday night.

 

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves, and Ian Cole, Erik Cernak and Steven Stamkos had the other Lightning goals. Tampa Bay has won all three games against the second-year Kraken, outscoring them 13-3.

 

The surging Lightning have won 11 of 14 overall.

 

Stamkos extended his point streak to 14 games (nine goals, 12 assists) with his third-period goal. He is three short of becoming the 47th NHL player to reach 500 goals.

 

Kucherov has 401 assists in 590 games. Among active players, only Connor McDavid (426), Sidney Crosby (448), Evgeni Malkin (527), Artemi Panarin (529) and Nicklas Backstrom (542) reached 400 assists faster. Martin St. Louis had been the quickest in Lightning history, doing it in 708 games.

 

“Honestly, the McDavids, the Points, the Kuchs, these guys can play at a high rate of speed, but they can do it with the puck,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Everybody can skate up and back and stop and start all day. You do it with the puck, you do it with pucks in the air, timing, it's so hard to do, and you're watching the best players in the world do it.”

 

Jared McCann and Ryan Donato scored for the Kraken, who dropped to 9-3-1 on the road. Two of those losses have come in the last three games.

 

“When that third goal went in, it took a lot out of us,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We started a little bit slow. They were on top of us the first 10 minutes. After the second goal went in, it took us a couple minutes to recover but for the next 30 minutes we were a good hockey team.”

 

Seattle's Philipp Grubauer allowed four goals on 20 shots before being pulled in the second.

 

After Perry got his 410th goal on the power play at 12:13, Point ended Grubauer’s night when he skated in from the neutral zone, eluded a couple of defenders and put home a backhand at 13:28.

 

Point has a four-game goal streak, and has nine goals in his last nine games.

 

“He's an elite player, and he can do elite things,” Cooper said.

 

Colton capped the outburst with a deflection that got past Martin Jones with 4:24 remaining in the second.

 

Cole opened the scoring 91 seconds into the game before Cernak made it 2-0 on his first goal in 66 games at 7:24 of the first.

 

Kucherov got his second assist and 400th overall on a nifty backhand pass from along the boards at the defensive blue line to Point, who set up Cernak.

 

Jordan Eberle blocked Cole’s shot and then assisted on McCann's 2-on-1 goal with 1:21 left in the first.

 

Donato scored with five seconds to play.

 

FAMILY REUNION

 

Seattle D Cale Fleury and Lightning D Haydn Fleury both played. It was the third time the brothers faced each other in an NHL game. They also played in the same game for the Kraken twice last season.

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 32

 

 

Seattle 2 Canes 3

 

Pyotr Kochetkov wins again, Hurricanes top Kraken 3-2

 

 

0:39

 

Stefan Noesen tallies goal vs. Kraken

Stefan Noesen tallies goal vs. Kraken

---

ByAP

Updated: 6 hours ago

 

RALEIGH, N.C. -- — Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov had his scoreless streak end and the Hurricanes held on after building an early lead to beat the Seattle Kraken 3-2 on Thursday night.

 

Andrei Svechnikov and Derek Stepan scored in the first period and Stefan Noesen added a second-period goal on his first career penalty shot.

 

Kochetkov, who went more than 151 minutes without allowing a goal, made 15 saves for his sixth win in the team’s last seven games. Carolina has a nine-game points streak, capped by a performance with few glitches.

 

“We were sharp and all over it,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

 

Ryan Donato and Daniel Sprong scored for Seattle and Philipp Grubauer made 36 saves. The Kraken finished a four-game trip 1-3-0.

 

“We knew what this stretch looked like,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We’re disappointed to go home with two points out of the eight (possible) points.”

 

Svechnikov scored unassisted 10:10 into the game after a terrible Seattle turnover. Stepan’s first goal of the season came with 2:08 left in the opening period. He had been without a goal throughout his first 25 games this season.

 

“It’s a confidence thing. It’s always nice to score,” Stepan said. “It definitely builds that momentum a little bit. If you really to start to beat yourself up, it just gets worse. I think there was a stretch where it was for me.”

 

Stepan had more than 11 minutes of ice time for the first time since Nov. 9. Brind’Amour said he had provided other assets.

 

“If you’re doing it right, eventually it’s going to go in for you,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s not playing a ton of minutes, and I’m not expecting him to score a ton of goals.”

 

Noesen gave the Hurricanes a goal on a penalty shot for the first time since March 2017. Noesen converted on a slap shot.

 

“I don’t think anyone is going to stop that one,” he said.

 

The second period also featured Kochetkov’s save on Sprong’s breakaway before Donato’s goal on a redirection at 11:26. That ended Kochetkov’s scoreless stretch at 151 minutes, 26 seconds. Still, he broke the franchise’s rookie goalie record for longest scoreless streak.

 

Sprong made it a one-goal margin with 10:46 remaining.

 

Grubauer was an unexpected starter for the Kraken after Martin Jones was scratched.

 

“He battled hard,” Hakstol said. “He gave us a chance to stay within striking distance in this game. … We stayed with it. We didn’t come apart. We didn’t try to start doing things on our own or get off the page.”

 

The Hurricanes held a 27-11 in shots through two periods.

 

Both teams were 0 for 2 on power plays. That might be more concerning for the Kraken, which is in a 1-for-18 stretch across the last six games.

 

“We had, in the second period tonight, outstanding opportunities early in the power play and didn’t sustain it to the next group coming out,” Hakstol said.

 

ICE MATTERS

 

Stepan, a 13-year NHL veteran, now has scored against all 32 active NHL teams. … Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho missed his third game in a row with a lower-body injury, but forward Jesper Fast was back following a two-game injury-related absence. … Seattle’s Yanni Gourde had an assist on his 31st birthday. He also had an assist seven years earlier on the only other occasion of playing an NHL game on his birthday.

 

 

 

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 33

 

Late McCann goal lifts Seattle Kraken over Winnipeg Jets 3-2

 

Seattle 3 Jets 2

 

 

 

---

ByAP

Updated: 6 hours ago

 

SEATTLE -- — Jared McCann scored the late game-winner to give the Seattle Kraken a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night.

 

Jordan Eberle and Ryan Donato also scored for the Kraken, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 15 shots, with both Winnipeg goals coming on the power play.

 

The Kraken snapped a two-game losing skid and won for just the second time in seven games.

 

“Just a bit more grit. I think we kind of lost that the last couple of games,” McCann said. “We haven’t played with that jam, that relentlessness, and I feel like we had that tonight.”

 

Mark Scheifele and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored for the Jets. David Rittich had 32 saves. The loss ended Winnipeg’s five-game road winning streak, which tied a franchise record.

 

The Jets were on the second night of a back-to-back after winning in Vancouver on Saturday and were playing their seventh game in 11 days.

 

“We were half a step behind physically, and mentally we complicated the game a little bit,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “When you do that, you’re back on your heels.”

 

Seattle generally held an advantage throughout the night in even strength and outshot the Jets 34-17, although Winnipeg took advantage of power play opportunities.

 

The Jets managed only three shots in the first period but still took a 1-0 lead. Seattle was whistled for a pair of penalties less than a minute apart. Winnipeg took advantage of the five-on-three, scoring off the initial faceoff after the second penalty when Scheifele redirected a shot by Josh Morrissey past Grubauer.

 

Eberle tied the game in the second period with a nice spinning backhand from the left circle, but the Jets quickly regained the lead with another power play opportunity as Dubois tapped in a rebound with about seven minutes left in the period.

 

Donato tied the game again just 16 seconds into the third period, redirecting a Yanni Gourde shot past Rittich. It was the third straight game with a goal for Donato, tying his career best.

 

McCann gave the Kraken the lead with 4½ minutes left in the game, putting the puck over Rittich’s shoulder from the right circle. It was McCann’s team-leading 14th goal.

 

“We’ve got to be really comfortable staying with games like this and winning games like this,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “The offense doesn’t come easy. The goals don’t come easy. We had to work real hard tonight to get the three that we got.”

 

GOING STREAKING

 

Morrissey’s first-period assist gave him a nine-game point streak, setting a franchise record for the longest streak by a defenseman. “It’s definitely something I don’t take for granted. It’s a pretty cool achievement,” he said.

 

Morrissey also became the first defenseman to reach 30 assists this season. Kyle Connor extended his scoring streak to nine games with a second period assist, tying Morrissey for the longest Jets streak this season.

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 34

 

Donato scores in fourth straight, Kraken topple Blues 5-2

 

Seattle 5 Blues 2

 

 

ByAP

Updated: 4 hours ago

 

SEATTLE -- — Ryan Donato continued his hot streak of goal scoring and got the Seattle Kraken off to the start they needed against an opponent they’ve struggled with in their first two seasons.

 

Donato scored in his fourth straight game, Carson Soucy, Daniel Sprong and Jared McCann scored in Seattle’s three-goal second period, and the Kraken beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Tuesday night.

 

Seattle won consecutive games for the first time in nearly three weeks, snapped the Blues’ four-game win streak and beat St. Louis for the first time in the Kraken’s two seasons.

 

“I think we see when we play the right way, were going to get our chances, and if we capitalize on them it’s hard to beat us,” Donato said.

 

Donato’s seventh goal of the season came at 16:27 of the first period and the four-game goal streak is the longest of his career. Donato split St. Louis defenders during a change, collected a long stretch pass from Adam Larsson and beat Blues goalie Thomas Greiss.

 

“For me, it definitely is sweet. I think it’s exciting,” Donato said. “But honestly at the end of the day, I think everybody in here can agree that it’s more about winning. So for me to be a part of that win, it’s definitely a good feeling.”

 

Soucy scored at the 10-minute mark of the second period by happening to be in the right spot after Will Borgen’s shot from the point deflected to the side of the net. He used one hand to poke the puck past Greiss. Sprong and McCann added goals just over two minutes apart late in the period. Sprong’s eighth goal came on a breakaway, while McCann scored from behind the goal line banking his shot off Greiss. McCann leads Seattle with 15 goals on the season.

 

Brandon Tanev added an empty-net goal with 4:13 left.

 

Martin Jones made 22 saves for Seattle and won for the fourth time in his last five starts.

 

“The first two periods we were pretty good. We did what we had to do in terms of overall pace of play, energy,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had a lot of good opportunities in the second period.”

 

St. Louis looked as if fatigue finally caught up. The Blues were playing their third back-to-back in the last nine days. The Blues had swept through Western Canada with wins in Edmonton, Calgary and Monday night in Vancouver before running out of steam in Seattle.

 

“We didn’t have the legs tonight, but we’ve got to be smarter then, and your puck play has to be really good,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said.

 

Colton Parayko scored his second of the season for St. Louis at 5:59 of the third period, and Pavel Buchnevich scored with one second left on a power play at 10:54 to pull St. Louis within 4-2. Greiss made 28 saves.

 

The Blues also were without leading scorer Jordan Kyrou due to an upper-body injury, one night after recording his first career hat trick in a 5-1 win over Vancouver. Kyrou was checked into the boards by Vancouver’s Kyle Burroughs with 1:31 left in the game and didn’t play another shift.

 

Kyrou had been on a hot streak with nine points — six goals and three assists — in the first three game of the Blues’ road trip. Kyrou began the night as St. Louis’ leading scorer with 16 goals and 32 points.

 

“I think they handled it OK. We obviously miss him,” Berube said. “He's a good player for us. It is what it is.”

 

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 35

 

Seattle 5 Van 6

 

Pettersson has 5-point night, adds SO winner for Canucks

 

 

0:43

 

Elias Pettersson tops off five-point night with shootout winner

Elias Pettersson tops off a fantastic five-point night with the winning shootout goal as the Canucks win 6-5 vs. the Kraken.

---

ByAP

Updated: 1 hour ago

 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- — Elias Pettersson scored his second goal of the game to tie it with 1:20 left in regulation and added the shootout winner in the Vancouver Canucks' 6-5 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.

 

Pettersson, who also had three assists, drilled a hard shot from above the faceoff circle to tie it with goalie Spencer Martin off for an extra attacker.

 

Pettersson returned to the lineup after missing two games because of a non-COVID-19 illness.

 

“I was running on no energy, just wanting the puck to go in,” Pettersson said.

 

Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau heaped praise on Pettersson.

 

“That’s six days off the ice and then he came in and did what he did tonight,” Boudreau said. “Pretty amazing. I don’t think you guys realize how much of an anomaly that is, being off six days and then playing that great. It defies logic.”

 

The Canucks had a power play with a minute left in the 3-on-3 overtime after Seattle’s Jordan Eberle was called for holding, but couldn’t score.

 

Andrei Kuzmenko had a goal and two assists for Vancouver, Lane Pederson scored his first goal in his third NHL game and added an assist, and Brock Boeser also connected. The Canucks have beaten the Kraken all six times they've met.

 

Martin stopped 31 shots for Vancouver.

 

Daniel Sprong scored twice for Seattle, and Jared McCann, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Alex Wennberg also had goals. Bjorkstrand and Sprong struck 10 seconds apart in the second to give Seattle a 3-1 lead.

 

“The result is disappointing,” Wennberg said. “We just worked really hard. “I feel like we emptied the tank today and unfortunately it didn’t work out.”

 

The Canucks erased three, two-goal deficits.

 

“We don’t do anything the easy way,” Boudreau said. “Give the team credit for not quitting. That’s a testament to the boys in the room.”

 

Kuzmenko cut it to 4-3 at 5:13, scoring off the rebound of Pederson's shot.

 

Sprong scored his second of the night just over a minute later, tipping in a pass from Brandon Tanev. Boeser got Vancouver back within one, redirecting Pettersson shot past goalie Martin Jones on a power play at 8:52.

 

Jones made 32 saves.

 

“We’re here to win a hockey game and we didn’t do that,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We have to do better when we’ve got a two-goal lead. That’s a game we feel like we should be able to close out.”

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 36

 

Seattle 2 EDM 7

 

Connor McDavid shines as Oilers pound Kraken 7-2

 

 

0:51

 

McDavid goes 5-hole to pour it on the Kraken

McDavid goes 5-hole to pour it on the Kraken.

---

ByAP

Updated: 2 hours ago

 

SEATTLE -- — Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Seattle Kraken 7-2 on Friday night.

 

Zach Hyman and Klim Kostin each scored twice as Edmonton won for the third time in four games. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had four assists, and Darnell Nurse finished with a goal and an assist.

 

McDavid extended his point streak to 17 games, matching his career best. He has 16 goals and 21 assists during the stretch.

 

“He’s the best player in the world for a reason,” said Seattle’s Adam Larsson, a former teammate with McDavid in Edmonton. “He’s hard to stop. We can do a lot better job stopping him, but when you give him time and space, he’s going to make you look stupid most of the time.”

 

Brandon Tanev and Daniel Sprong scored for Seattle in its third consecutive loss.

 

Edmonton grabbed control with four goals in the first half of the first period.

 

Hyman put the Oilers ahead to stay with a power-play goal at 2:44. It was his 16th of the season.

 

Kostin scored at 3:16, and Nurse slipped another shot past Phillipp Grubauer at 3:55. It was the second-fastest trio of goals to begin a game in the NHL this season, behind only Buffalo at 2:13.

 

Grubauer was replaced by Martin Jones, but Edmonton made it 4-0 when Jesse Puljujarvi scored his third goal of the season at 9:58.

 

McDavid collected three assists in the first period, and Edmonton’s four goals were the most allowed by the Kraken in the first in franchise history.

 

Sprong got Seattle on the board 1:50 into the second. It was Sprong’s 11th of the season.

 

But Kostin and Hyman scored again for the Oilers in the middle period. McDavid got his 40th assist of the season on Hyman’s 17th goal.

 

McDavid closed it out when he scored his NHL-leading 32nd goal 10:43 into the third.

 

“I’m always working on my game,” McDavid said. “I’m just trying to get better and some nights it goes well and some nights it doesn’t. That’s the nature of this league, and I’m just trying to help the team win. That’s what I’m paid to do.”

 

Earlier this season, McDavid became just the fifth NHL player in the past 25 years to score 30 goals in 35 or fewer games.

 

“What he is doing, I think we should all realize, is quite special,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “It’s the best league in the world, and he is off to a career year. He is doing something that the league hasn’t seen for a very long time. So that is special.”

 

Each of Seattle's past three losses have come against Pacific Division rivals.

 

“The competitiveness, and that element, and that willingness to check and push and push through hard situations is really important. We weren’t very good there tonight,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “So that’s where, you know, we have to take a close hard look at ourselves. All of us. We’re all in this thing together.”

 

WORTH NOTING

 

Edmonton played without center Leon Draisaitl, who was scratched with an unspecified injury. Draisaitl has 21 goals and 36 assists in 36 games this season. ... Larsson picked up an assist on Tanev’s goal 7:33 into the second. It was Larsson’s career-best fifth straight game with an assist.

 

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 37

 

Seattle 4 NYI 1

 

Kraken snap 3-game skid with 4-1 win over NY Islanders

 

 

0:35

 

Oliver Bjorkstrand scores off the rebound for Seattle

The Seattle Kraken take a 3-1 lead as Oliver Bjorkstrand scores off the rebound.

---

ByAP

6 hours ago

 

SEATTLE -- — Eeli Tolvanen scored his first goal in a Seattle uniform since coming over from Nashville, and the Kraken halted a three-game winless streak on Sunday night by beating the New York Islanders 4-1.

 

Adam Larsson, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Brandon Tanev also scored for the Kraken. Goalie Martin Jones made 18 saves for the Kraken.

 

Mathew Barzal scored for New York, the 100th goal of his NHL career in his 400th game. Ilya Sorokin saved 31 shots for the Islanders.

 

Tolvanen, who was claimed by Seattle off waivers from the Predators on Dec. 12, snapped a 1-1 tie at the 3:58 mark of the second period. At the top of the right circle, he took a pass from Vince Dunn and drilled a slapshot to the back left corner past Sorokin.

 

The goal, Tolvanen’s third of the season, came on a power play. That ended a seven-game 0-for-16 Kraken drought with the man advantage dating back to Dec. 11 in a 5-2 victory at Florida.

 

“That felt really good. It’s been a while since I played my last game, so it’s nice to get the first goal out of the way in the first one,” said Tolvanen, whose most recent contest was Nov. 19 against Tampa Bay. “It was a power play, so it’s just getting pucks on the net and shooting right away when you get it in the zone. They told me right before to shoot it as soon as I got it.”

 

Added Kraken coach Dave Hakstol, “The power play goal, you can’t teach that – that’s an ability that he has. He got all of that, and he beat a good goaltender on that play, and that’s a real skill that he possesses. I know he can do that.”

 

Larsson gave Seattle a 1-0 lead at 9:53 of the first period with his fourth of the season, shoveling it in from the top of the crease after taking a pass from Ryan Donato.

 

Barzal tied it 1-1 at 17:30 of the first, reaching out in front of the left post to direct a pass from Casey Cizikas into the far side of the net, his ninth of the year.

 

Bjorkstrand tallied his fifth of the season for a 3-1 Seattle lead at 13:04 of the second, slapping in the rebound of a shot by Jamie Oleksiak. Tanev added an empty netter with 34.3 seconds left. It was his seventh goal.

 

Islanders coach Lane Lambert said getting just 19 shots was a simple matter of not executing.

 

“You can’t play the speed you want if you don’t execute cleanly,” Lambert said. “Give them credit – they filled good gaps all night, but we certainly didn’t execute the way we wanted to. When we did have the puck in the neutral zone, we turned it over instead of getting it in deep and establishing our forecheck."

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 38

 

Seattle 5 Edm 2

 

Kraken sink struggling Oilers 5-2 with offensive outburst

 

 

---

ByAP

5 hours ago

 

EDMONTON, Alberta -- — Jaden Schwartz had a goal and two assists as the Seattle Kraken exploded for four consecutive goals in the second period to come away with a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.

 

“It was nice. I thought the way we played it was good to get rewarded,” said Kraken defender Adam Larsson. “There was a lot of emphasis on what happened last game and that made us even more hungry today. From top to bottom every guy played a solid game.”

 

Matty Beniers, Yanni Gourde, Jared McCann and Alex Wennberg also scored for the Kraken (20-12-4) who have won two in a row. Martin Jones made 30 saves in the Seattle net.

 

“In the second period, we got that one goal and it gave us some wings offensively and we were able to make more plays offensively, and I think we kept our game pretty simple,” Gourde said. “We weren’t trying too much, we weren’t trying to pass through guys, we were just putting it at the net and trying to work our way there and we got rewarded.”

 

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid responded with goals for the Oilers (20-17-2) who have lost two straight and five consecutive games on home ice.

 

“You go up 2-0 and the odds that you win that game are statistically pretty high, right?” said Oilers forward Zach Hyman. “But, unfortunately, we weren’t able to keep the lead and we had 11 minutes where we fell asleep in the second period (and allowed four goals) and suddenly you are playing catch-up."

 

Edmonton’s lethal power play connected to start the scoring with 7:13 remaining in the opening period as a Leon Draisaitl shot attempt went through the crease to Nugent-Hopkins, who sniped home his 19th of the season from a tough angle past Jones.

 

Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner kept it a 1-0 game by making a breakaway stop on Daniel Sprong a few minutes later.

 

The Oilers went up by a pair just 48 seconds into the middle frame as McDavid got his league-leading 33rd goal of the season.

 

The Kraken tied the game with a pair of goals just 31 seconds apart, however.

 

Seattle got on the board 4:44 into the second period with a power-play goal as Beniers was able to bat a rebound out of mid-air and it trickled behind Skinner.

 

Then with another Oiler penalty on the way, Beniers made a perfect long pass to Schwartz at the back door, and he directed home his first goal in 12 games.

 

The Kraken kept coming against a shaken Oilers squad, as the Edmonton defense failed to clear a big rebound, allowing Gourde to score his first goal in nine outings through traffic with just over seven minutes to play in the second.

 

Seattle scored its fourth straight goal in the period with 4:12 remaining. The goal chased Skinner from the net after allowing four goals on 20 shots, with Jack Campbell coming in to replace him.

 

Edmonton thought it had clawed back to within a goal on an early third period power-play goal by Draisaitl, but it was erased on a coach’s challenge which determined Hyman was offside on the play.

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 39

 

Seattle 5 Leafs 1

 

 

 

Kraken beat Maple Leafs 5-1 for 3rd straight victory

 

TORONTO (AP) Vince Dunn had a goal and two assists, Martin Jones stopped 26 shots and the Seattle Kraken beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 on Thursday night for their third straight victory.

"We shot a lot of pucks tonight from all sorts of angles," Dunn said. "That's really important to keep the goalie honest and for us to establish a forecheck."

Jared McCann had a goal and an assist to help Seattle improve to 21-12-4. Eeli Tolvanen opened the scoring for the Kraken on the power play, with Matty Beniers and Alex Wennberg adding goals.

John Tavares had a power-play goal for Toronto and Matt Murray made 21 saves. The Maple Leafs dropped to 23-9-7.

Just 14 seconds after Tavares tied it midway through the second period, Dunn handcuffed Murray with a wrist shot that dropped to the ice off the goalie's arm and slid over the goal line.

McCann made it 3-1 shortly afterward, taking a lead pass from Jaden Schwartz for a clean breakaway. He snapped a shot past Murray, pumping his fist as he curled away past the goal in celebration of his team-leading 18th goal of the season.

"We have to do a better job, obviously, of executing those details, especially in certain moments of the game to continue to give us a chance and be right there," Tavares said. "Especially when we did a lot of good things in the first half."

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 40

 

Kraken win fourth straight by squashing Senators

 

Seattle 8 Sens 4

 

 

 

• More options

OTTAWA — The Seattle Kraken won their fourth consecutive game on Saturday, showing the Ottawa Senators their improvement this season is no accident.

 

The Kraken defeated the Senators 8-4 as Jordan Eberle and Andre Burakovsky led the way with a goal and two assists each for the Kraken (22-12-4). The visitors got goals from eight different players and 13 had at least one point.

Justin Schultz, Matty Beniers, Vince Dunn and Daniel Sprong had a goal and an assist each. Jared McCann and Oliver Bjorkstrand also scored for Seattle.

 

Martin Jones made 19 saves for his 18th win of the NHL season.

 

“I think the strength of this group is in the depth that we have. And that’s not just the forwards — it’s the defence, it’s the goalies. You see teams that have four lines and six (defencemen) who can contribute and that’s dangerous," said Eberle.

"In my opinion, a lot of the teams that make the playoffs, it’s because of that (depth).”

 

The Senators (18-18-3) got three goals from Tim Stutzle and another from Brady Tkachuk as they had their modest two-game winning streak halted.

 

Anton Forsberg started in goal for the Senators but was pulled in favour of Cam Talbot 15 minutes into the game after allowing three goals on just five shots. Talbot turned aside 14 of 19 shots.

 

“There’s no excuses on my end. It was a tough night for both of us. We’ll both take the heat on this one. I know I can speak for (Forsberg) because he is as accountable as me,” Talbot said.

 

“You score four goals in a hockey game you should be able to make the rest of the saves to win the game. He’d be with me when I say we need to be better, and we will be.”

 

The Kraken led 5-3 to start the third but quickly made that a 7-3 lead on goals by Dunn and Eberle in the opening five minutes. Stutzle completed his hat trick at 5:20 of the period to pull the Senators to within three goals, but Burakovsky scored midway through the period for an 8-4 lead.

“If we play a certain style, regardless of who is in the lineup, we’re in the game every night. We did not play that style today,” Senators coach DJ Smith said.

 

“We’ve played a pretty good stretch of hockey here where we’ve played pretty well, but there are some guys that didn’t have it tonight and the chemistry wasn’t there.

 

"At the end of day you only win by playing hard defence in this league and we didn’t play nearly enough defence tonight to have a chance to win.”

 

The was no lack of scoring in the opening two periods as Seattle took a 3-1 lead into the second period and 5-3 lead into the third. The eight goals came on a combined 30 shots, 15 apiece.

 

The Kraken opened the scoring at 9:19 of the first period when Bjorkstrand beat Forsberg over the stick-side shoulder. Just 62 seconds later the Senators tied the game as Tkachuk split the defence and fired a shot over the glove of Jones.

 

The Kraken scored twice more in the opening 20 minutes as McCann scored at 12:53 and Schultz tipped a point shot past Forsberg at 15:13. That spelled the end of the night for Forsberg.

 

“We’ve been at our best when we’ve been able to roll four lines and not have a huge concern over each matchup. That’s the way our team is built,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said.

 

“We’re asking everyone to contribute, play the right way, play with responsibility defensively. We weren’t air tight there tonight, but we were good enough at the right times.”

 

The Senators came out strong in the second period and got a pair of goals from Stutzle to tie the game 3-3. Stutzle scored a power-play goal at 6:35 and then chopped a rebound past Jones while falling at 8:34.

 

Just 22 seconds later Sprong gave the Kraken a 4-3 lead and took away any momentum the Senators were building.

 

“We did a good job battling back, we had all the momentum and I think the turning point was that next shot. If I make the save on the 2-on-1 it could have been a completely different game. I had to be better,” Talbot said.

Beniers increased that lead to 5-3 at 14:13. Beniers leads all rookies with 14 goals and 30 points this season.

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 41

 

Seattle 4 Habs 0

 

 

Jones gets 27th career shutout, Kraken beat Canadiens 4-0

MONTREAL (AP) Vince Dunn and Eeli Tolvanen each had a goal and an assist, Martin Jones stopped 21 shots for his second shutout of the season as the Seattle Kraken beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-0 on Monday night for their fifth straight win.

Daniel Sprong and Matty Beniers also scored, and Yanni Gourde had two assists in his return to his home province of Quebec. The Kraken are now 4-0 on a seven-game trip to open the new year and have outscored opponents 26-8 during their overall win streak.

"It's a difficult month, right?" Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "You're gonna get into rhythms like this where you're gonna be busy and play a lot of hockey, so it's nice that we've been able to start it off successfully. That feels good.

"Probably one of the bigger strengths of our group has been being able to enjoy the moment for a little while and then turn the page."

Jones had six saves in the first period, nine in the second and six in the third to get his 27th career shutout.

Samuel Montembeault had 37 saves for Montreal, which snapped a seven-game skid with a 5-4 win against St. Louis on Saturday.

"After a big win like that, I don't know, we seemed to take it really easy, thought it might be an easy night," the Canadiens' Nick Suzuki said. "There's no easy nights in this league and especially with a team like that. A lot of guys are playing to prove something, they've been playing really well as of late and we dug ourselves too big a hole in the first period."

The surging Kraken jumped out of the starting blocks, outshooting Montreal 19-6 and grabbing a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Seattle opened the scoring at 6:54 of the opening period when Dunn found Tolvanen with a cross-ice pass through the slot. The forward got his fifth goal of the season.

Sprong doubled the Kraken's lead on the power play with a heavy shot from the point just past the midpoint of the period. It was his 13th.

Dunn also fired a slap shot from the point to give Seattle a 3-0 lead with 5:40 remaining in the first.

The Kraken shut down Montreal's attack, blocking a total of 18 shots. Jones made an impressive pad save on Nick Suzuki with 3:03 remaining in the third to preserve his shutout.

"I was just trying to make the best read I can, obviously they were pressing at the end there being up 3-0 with three minutes left," Jones said. "I was able to make that save and, really, the guys did all the rest."

Montreal pulled Montembeault but Beniers sealed Seattle's win with an empty-netter with 1:03 remaining.

ROAD WARRIORS

The second-year Kraken have won five straight on the road and are 13-4-2 on the season away from home.

"We've had a pretty busy schedule so the team bonding moments have been there, but I think maybe when we're on the road it's just all about hockey," Dunn said. "It's not distractions, maybe with family visiting town or things like that. It's always good to be home but I don't know why we're so good on the road."

REVERSE ZERO

The Canadiens lost a fourth straight game with their reverse retro uniforms, falling to 0-4-0 while getting outscored 18-5 in their light blue jerseys.

EMERGENCY RECALL

The Canadiens announced a few hours before the game that goaltender Jake Allen suffered an upper-body injury. The team recalled Cayden Primeau from Laval of the AHL and he was the backup against the Kraken.

[Brewin Flames]

Game $$ 42

 

Seattle 4 Buf 3

 

Kraken make it 6 in a row with 4-3 win over Sabres

 

 

---

ByAP

Updated: 6 hours ago

 

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- — Matt Beniers, Justin Schultz and Jordan Eberle each had a goal and an assist for Seattle, which rallied to beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 on Tuesday night for the Kraken's sixth consecutive win.

 

Yanni Gourde also scored, Andre Burakovsky had two assists and Philipp Grubauer made 32 saves in the fifth of a seven-game trip, Seattle’s longest of the season.

 

“You are going to have games like this, on a back-to-back, where it doesn’t look all that good, it doesn’t look pretty,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “But that’s a great win for our group, to stick together and get it done.”

 

Alex Tuch scored twice for the Sabres, Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and an assist and Jeff Skinner tallied two assists. Sabres goalie Eric Comrie stopped 18 shots in his first start since sustaining a lower-body injury on Nov. 16.

 

It was Buffalo’s second home loss in as many nights after winning eight of nine games.

 

“We had some momentum for the majority of the game and we kind of sat back a little bit,” Tuch said. “Got a little frustration, left some spots open in the D-zone, and that’s when they capitalized.”

 

Beniers set up Schultz for a one-timer from the high slot at 5:17 of the third after scoring the go-ahead goal at 1:06 into the period.

 

The Kraken’s 20-year-old All-Star got his 16th goal of the season when he dove at the left edge of the crease to knock in the rebound from Vince Dunn’s shot that hit the post. Beniers' five-game goal streak is a Kraken record.

 

“He’s got some dynamic ability in open ice and finding plays,” Hakstol said about Beniers. “But he’s also got that moxie and grit to go to some of those hard areas.”

 

The Kraken tied it when Schultz fed Gourde in front of the net about nine minutes into the second period, after Dahlin’s power-play goal but Buffalo ahead a few minutes earlier.

 

Eberle’s equalizer came on a power play late in the first period when he tipped Burakovsky’s shot past Comrie.

 

“I don’t think we had our best start, but that goal kind of got us back in it and got us feeling good coming into the room,” Schultz said. “And we kind of grinded this one out tonight.”

 

The Sabres did not have shot on goal before Tuch put them ahead at about 10 minutes into the game. Buffalo’s All-Star center Tage Thompson created the scoring chance when he drove to the left side of the net and slid a backhand pass to Tuch in the slot.

 

Tuch knocked in a rebound for his 20th goal of the season with 20.8 seconds left in the third after the Sabres pulled Comrie for an extra skater.

 

SABRES MOVES

 

Buffalo activated defenseman Henri Jokiharju from injured reserve Tuesday and waived Casey Fitzgerald. Jokiharju replaced Jacob Bryson in the lineup after missing 11 games with a lower-body injury.

 

Comrie returned to the net a couple days ahead of schedule after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s illness altered the planned starting rotation. Luukkonen has the NHL’s longest active win streak at six games. The rookie goalie was sent to the minors on Monday, but Buffalo intends to recall.

 

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 43

 

Seattle 8 Hawks 5

 

Jared McCann has hat trick, Kraken win 8th straight

(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

By MATT CARLSON

Associated Press

 

CHICAGO (AP) Jared McCann had his first career hat trick and the Seattle Kraken beat the Chicago Blackhawks 8-5 on Saturday night for their franchise-record eighth straight victory.

McCann scored twice in a five-goal flurry in a 3:41 span of the first period.

All-star rookie Matty Beniers and Oliver Bjorkstrand each had a goal and an assist and the Kraken won their seventh straight on the road to become the first NHL team to sweep a trip of seven or more games.

"Being able to score in a game like this is just huge," McCann said. "And obviously we made some history tonight, so was nice."

Daniel Sprong, Andre Burakovsky and Eeli Tolvanen also scored for Seattle.

Seattle improved to 26-12-4, a win short of its total last season when it joined the NHL as an expansion franchise. Ryan Donato, Alex Wennberg and Yanni Gourde each had two assists.

Coach Dave Hakstol stopped short of saying his team is ahead of schedule. But he likes what sees so far in Seattle's second season.

"It's a great accomplishment for the players to be able to do that," Hakstol said. "It shows the consistency and work they've put in from the start of this road trip."

The sharp-shooting McCann, who leads the Kraken with 22 goals, has been a big part of Seattle's surge.

"He just continues to find the back of the net and provide real good two-way play," Hakstol said. "He has a natural scoring ability, an elite ability there. We saw that tonight."

The Kraken's 16-4-2 road record has helped, too.

"We didn't have the best year last year, especially on the road," McCann said "We've added some new faces and made our team a lot deeper."

The game was tied 1-all midway in the first when the Kraken surged ahead with five goals on six shots against last-place Chicago.

Beniers started the onslaught with his 17th goal, through a screen at 9:30. McCann and Burakovksy connected on prime chances 1:22 part to make it 4-1 and prompt Chicago coach Luke Richardson replace goalie Petr Mrazek with Alex Stalock.

In alone, Tolvanen beat Stalock just 37 seconds later. McCann completed the spree at 13:11, firing a shot from the right circle between Stalock's pads.

The Kraken started their eight-game run with a home win over the New York Islanders on New Year's Day, then topped Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo and Boston before capping the trip with the drubbing of Chicago.

Seattle and goalie Martin Jones blanked Boston 3-0 on Thursday, handing the Bruins their first home regulation loss this season. In this one, Jones made 22 saves for his seventh straight victory.

The Kraken had a seven-game winning streak earlier this season, from Nov. 17 to Dec. 1.

Taylor Raddysh had a goal and two assists for Chicago, whose three-game winning streak ended. Jonathan Toews, Maxi Domi, Isaak Phillips and Patrick Kane also scored for the Blackhawks.

"Now you just have to put your work ethic back on and get right back at it," Richardson said. "I assume that this is unacceptable for them (Chicago players) as well and they'll be ready to work on Monday."

Kane returned after missing three games with a lower-body injury.

Mrazek stopped just one of five shots. Stalock blocked 21 of 25 shots and heard derisive cheers from the crowd on routine saves once he settled in.

TOP PROSPECT RETURNED

With Kane back, the Blackhawks returned top prospect Lukas Reichel to Rockford of the AHL. During his three-game recall, the 20-year-old German forward scored his first NHL goal and had two assists.

Reichel, drafted 17th overall in 2020, made a bigger impact that in four previous short stints with Chicago over the past two seasons. Still the Blackhawks want him to hone his skills and consistency by playing a lot of minutes in the minors.

"There's a few things that he still needs to improve on," coach Luke Richardson said, while pointing to Reichel's defensive zone play.

[Brewin Flames]

Game # 44

 

Seattle 1 Bolts 4

 

Lightning score 3 in 3rd, end Kraken's 8-game winning streak

Tampa Bay gets 4th straight victory; Grubauer makes 27 saves for Seattle

by Andy Eide / NHL.com Independent Correspondent

 January 16, 2023

•  

 

 

SEATTLE -- The Seattle Kraken's eight-game winning streak ended when Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-1 victory at Climate Pledge Arena on Monday.

Brandon Hagel had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (28-13-1), who won their fourth straight.

 

"Theyre a good hockey team and are going to get some chances, but I thought we limited them pretty well," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "They pushed, as to be expected, but we weathered it and [Nicholas Paul's] goal was a big one for us. It was a tight-checking game, special teams wasn't a big factor. It was just two pretty good teams going at it."

 

Vince Dunn scored, and Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves for the Kraken (26-13-4). The winning streak was the longest in their two NHL seasons.

 

"I think we could have been a lot better with our execution right out of our zone," Dunn said. "I think we had our chances and our looks. I definitely think we turned down a couple of shots, but for the most part our execution needs to be better."

Tampa Bay outshot Seattle 31-23 and killed three Kraken power plays.

 

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 18:42 of the first period when he redirected a point shot from Ian Cole. It was his first goal since Dec.15 when he scored against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

 

"I thought we came out flying." Tampa Bay forward Ross Colton said. "We knew they were on a big winning streak. We wanted to set the tone, and I think we did a good job of doing that. Second period wasn't great, we kind of took our foot off the gas, thought it was going to be easy like the first. Obviously a good team over there and they took it to us, but credit to the leaders and the coaches."

 

Paul made it 2-0 at 6:44 of the third period after stealing the puck from Dunn at the side of the net, turning and firing the puck in from the bottom of the right face-off circle.

 

Dunn cut it to 2-1 at 10:44 when his slap shot from the blue line ricocheted in off Cole's shin guard. The defenseman has a seven-game point streak (four goals, seven assists).

 

"They're tough team to get inside on, they box you out early," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "You've got to find a way to get inside and win that race inside early and then shoot pucks inside, and you know, we weren't able to do that."

 

 

Hagel scored an empty-net goal at 18:21 to make it 3-1. Victor Hedman scored another empty-net goal at 19:16 for the 4-1 final, after being unable to get the puck to Steven Stamkos, who was with him on the rush looking for his 500th NHL goal.

 

"It's all about managing the game and we don't need another [goal]," Cooper said. "We just needed to prevent them from getting one. It's not like we sat back, we were feeling pretty good about our offensive game, at least the possession part of it."