Leafs outskate Kraken, 3-1

The Seattle Kraken continued their `streaky’ ways with a 3-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs last night at Climate Pledge Arena.

It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Kraken, playing their first home game since Jan. 4 after completing a six-game road trip. Previously, Seattle had gone 12 games with at least one standings point and prior to that run, had gone eight games without a victory.

“There were a couple of turning points in the game,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. “We had a couple of power play advantages in the first period. If we could have taken advantage of one that could have changed the momentum. Then there second goal came after a penalty kill. (Toronto) came out of the penalty box and made a play.”

The Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews opened the scoring and showed why he’s the leading goal scorer (38 goals) in the NHL. He took a centering pass from Mitch Marner but looked like he didn’t have control of the puck. But Mathews was still able to backhand the puck as he crossed in front of the net beating Kraken goalkeeper Joey Daccord.

Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the second. After taking a nice pass from Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi found defenseman Nick Robertson stepping into the slot, and Robertson fired a shot home.

The Kraken finally got on the scoreboard at 14:03 of the middle frame. Thomas Tartar drilled a shot from the point and Jared McCann, despite being sandwiched by two Leaf defenseman crossed a pass over to Jordan Eberle who had the open right side of the net. For Eberle, his seventh goal of the season.

”We had some good looks tonight,” said Eberle. “But we need to score some goals, five-on-five. And we need to get our power play going.”

The Maple Leafs played a strong positional game and the Kraken were unable to muster any scoring chances after Daccord was pulled in the final minute for an extra attacker. Toronto d-man Jake McCabe iced the win when his clearing pass took a fortuitous bounce and wound up in the empty net.

The Kraken fall to 19-17-9 (four points out of the final playoff berth in the Western Conference. Toronto, playing its second game in as many nights (they dropped a 6-4 decision at Vancouver, Saturday night) improves to 19-7-9 in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.

Seattle has three more home games before the All-Star break. They welcome Chicago on Wednesday, St. Louis Friday and Columbus in another 6 p.m. Sunday game. Those are three potentially winnable games for the Kraken.

GAME NOTES The Maple Leafs have three former Kraken on their roster, but only one- Calle Jarnkrok- was in the lineup. Jarnkrok was famously dubbed `my man, Calle’ by former Seahawk and part-Kraken owner Marshawn Lynch at the expansion draft in the summer of 2021. Former Kraken captain Mark Giordano was a scratch, and Martin Jones backed up goalie Ilya Samsonov, last night’s number-one star. Jones, who manned the nets for the Kraken during their eight-game winning streak a year ago, was picked up by the Leafs when goalkeeper Joseph Woll went down with an injury.

Seattle was missing five regulars due to injury – forwards Matty Beniers, Kailer Yamamoto and Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare, defenseman Vince Dunn and goalie Philipp Grubauer along with Yanni Gourde, serving a two-game suspension for a hit on Edmonton’s Mattias Ekholm. The Maple Leafs have four players on the injured list.

Brandon Tanev had a busy first period. He was the recipient of a late hit and then he and Toronto defenseman Simon Benoit received double minors for roughing. Later in the period, Tanev and Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe received five-minute fighting majors after Tanev flattened Matthew Knies behind the net.

                Pierre-Eduoard Bellamare and Kailer Yamamoto hope to

                return to the lineup soon.

Scoring Summary

First Period

T- Auston Matthews (Mitch Marner, Matthew Knies) 7:06.

Second Period

T- Nick Robertson (Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi) 2 :51. S- Jordan Eberle (Jared McCann, Thomas Tartar) 14:03.

Third Period

T- Jake McCabe (unassisted) 19:40.

Shots on Goal- Toronto 26, Seattle 17.

Penalty Minutes- Toronto 11, Seattle 11.

Faceoffs- Toronto 73.2. Seattle 26.8.

Referees- Kyle Rehman, Tom Chmielewski. Linesmen- Travis Gawryletz, Caleb Apperson.