Kraken blow lead to Flames
Kraken blow
another lead, lose to Flames, 6-3
By Raymond
V. Murphy
For the
second consecutive game, the Seattle Kraken had a poor second period after a
promising start. But unlike their previous game against the Nashville
Predators, a 4-2 victory, the Kraken were unable to rebound in the final period
and dropped a 6-3 decision to the Calgary Flames last night at Climate Pledge
Arena. The Flames’ victory ended a six-game losing streak by the Kraken’s
Pacific Division rivals.
“You can’t
underestimate any team,” said the Kraken’s Pierre Eduard Bellamare after the
game. “Sometimes you don’t get the breaks but we hurt ourselves. It’s not the
way you want to start (an upcoming) road trip.”
Kraken took
advantage of a lengthy power play early. Calgary’s Andrew Mangepane received a
five-minute penalty and was kicked out of the game for cross-checking the
Kraken’s Jared McCann in the head while he was down on the ice. Oliver
Bjorkstrand fired home shot from the
left circle. But as sometimes happen in hockey, Martin Pospisil, who had been
serving Mangepane’s five-minute penalty, came out of the penalty box to notch
the goal.
Seattle
would take a 2-1 lead to the intermission. After Yanni Gourde broke up a
Calgary attempt to clear its’ defensive zone, Devin Shore gained control and
sent a lead pass to Gourde. From the right wing boards, Gourde made a picture
perfect pass to Eeli Tolvanen cutting to the net and Tolvanen slid a shot past
Flames’ netminder Daniel Vadar, into the net.
The Kraken
had a 10-6 shots on goal advantage after the first 20 minutes but Seattle could
only muster two shots in the second frame. Calgary had a 12-2 shot advantage
and recorded the only goal of the period. After not drawing a penalty for
almost half the game, Seattle’s Tolvanen and McCann were whistled off in quick
succession giving Calgary a 5-3 advantage. When Tolvanen returned, it appeared
the Kraken might kill the penalty but defenseman Noel Hanifan fired home the
tying goal.
“We work our way
through the 5-on-3 and get toward the end of the penalty-kill, but then
ultimately that’s where it changes the complexion of the entire game,”
said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol, who bemoaned that the Kraken just weren’t shooting
enough. “They outhustled us.”
“We weren’t
skating,” said defenseman Justin Schultz of the second period. “We were chasing
the puck around too much.”
Things got
worse for the Kraken in the third period as the visitors struck for two quick
goals. At 1:33, Yegor Sharangovich tapped in defenseman Nikita Zadarov’s drive
from the point. Two minutes later, A.J. Greer, not known for his offensive
prowess, pounced on a loose puck and went in on a breakway. Philipp Grubauer
made the split save in the Kraken crease, but with the Seattle defense still
out of his position, Walker Duehr gathered the puck and passed to Mikael
Backlund, who fired home what proved to be the game winner. Backlund added an
empty netter later on to earn `number-one star’ honors.
Jaden
Schultz gave the Kraken faithful some hope when he scored at 18:29 to make it
4-3. Schultz `got inside’ and scored off a pass from Matty Beniers, who’s had a
quiet start after earning rookie-of-the-year honors a season ago. Schultz’s
goal came after Grubauer had been pulled from the Kraken net. But on the
ensuing two faceoffs, Seattle was unable to keep the puck in their offensive
zone leading to empty netters from Rasmas Anderson and Backlund.
It (our
offense) felt like it was coming, coming,” said Bellamare. “Then we were down
by two with five minutes left. We gave up too many three-on-twos in the game.”
The Kraken
return to the road on Tuesday night when they travel to Edmonton to face the
always dangerous Oilers. However, Edmonton has gotten off to a slow start
(2-7-1) losing yesterday to the Nashville Predators, the team Seattle beat in
their previous game, 4-2.
KRAKEN NOTES…Yanni
Gourde played last night’s contest with a CCM turtleneck sweater designed to
prevent skate blades from cutting a player’s throat. Last week, former NHLer
Adam Johnson was killed while playing in England, the result of a skate cut to
the neck. Washington Capital forward and Washington state native T.J. Oshe is
another player donning the turtleneck…Kraken fans can at least take solace in
the fact that their team isn’t the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks lost to the
Pittsburgh Penguins last night, 10-2, the second consecutive game the winless
Sharks have given up that many goals. San Jose lost to Vancouver, 10-1, on
Thursday night. SJ is the first team since the 1965 Boston Bruins to lose two
consecutive games allowing double figures in goals.
Scoring Summary
First Period
S- Oliver Bjorkstrand (Justin Schultz 4, Yanni Gourde 3)
power play . C- Martin Pospisil (Nazem Kadri, Dillon Dube) 13:59. S- Eeli
Tolvanen 2 (Gourde 4, Devin Shore 1) 16:22.
Second Period
C- Noah Hanifan (Jonathan Huberdeau, Connor Zary) 9:00.
Third Period
C- Yegor Sharangovich (Nikita Zadarov, Nick DeSimone) 1:33.
C- Mikael Backlund (Walker Duehr, A.J. Greer) 4:00. S- Jaden Schwartz 5 (Matty
Beniers 4, Vince Dunn 8) 18:29. C- Mikael Backlund (unassisted) empty net, 19:12.
C- Rasmus Anderson (unassisted) empty net, 19:39.
Shots on Goal- Calgary 31, Seattle 20
Hits- Calgary 17, Seattle 8.
Penalty Minutes- Calgary 9, Seattle 6.
Faceoffs- Calgary 40%. Seattle 60%
Referees- Kevin Pollock .Trevor Hanson. Linesmen- Bevan
Mills, Mitch Hunt.
Three Stars- 1. Mikael Backlund, C. 2. Yegor Sharangovich, C.
3. Yanni Gourde, S.
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