Kraken beat the `big, bad Bruins- again
Against the Minnesota Wild last weekend, the Seattle Kraken
scored 36 seconds into the game, but the Wild went on to post a dominant 5-2
victory. Tuesday night at Climate Pledge Arena, the visiting Boston Bruins outshot
the Kraken, 9-1, in the opening minutes of the game but Seattle went on to post
a 4-3 overtime victory.
“We know we can play with these teams,” said Kraken coach
Dave Hakstol when it was noted that the Kraken have beaten the top two point-getters
(Vancouver and Boston) on their most recent homestand. “Points are what’s important
now.”
Unfortunately for the Kraken, the resurgent Nashville
Predators posted another victory Wednesday night, their sixth in a row, and
Seattle’s now six points behind the Predators for the final Western Conference
playoff berth. Seattle’s 11th overall in the conference and would have
to leapfrog St. Louis, Minnesota and Calgary for a playoff berth as well.
However, there was plenty to be pleased about on Wednesday
night as the Kraken have swept the season series against the mighty Bruins,
thanks to Kailer Yamamoto’s shootout goal (the only score in the shootout). Seattle
beat Boston, 3-0, on their most recent road trip.
The game did feature its share of odd plays on Black History
night. The first black player in the NHL, Willie O’Ree, made his debut in the
Bruins’ black and gold on Jan. 18, 1959.
In the second period, with the Kraken on the power play and trailing
1-0, Boston goaltender Linus Ulman tried to clear the puck from the front of
his net and put it right on the stick of Joran Eberle, who deposited his 14th
goal of the season into the open net.
Eberle, who’s been mentioned prominently in trade talks (his
contract expires at the end of this season), continues to show why he could be
a valuable asset to a contending team, He now has four goals, five assists
along with a +5 in his last ten games.
A rare occurrence came late in the second period when a
player and a linesmen were hit in the face with a puck five seconds apart. First,
current Bruin and former Kraken Morgan Geekie was felled by an errant shot. Then
as soon as play resumed, Boston’s Charlie McAvoy caught linesman Ben O’Quinn on
the side of the head with a slapper. Geekie was okay but O’Quinn didn’t return
at the start of the third period.
A storybook ending would have Geekie scoring the game winner
in his return to Seattle. And that almost happened in the third period when Geekie
tapped one past Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer. But replays showed that
Geekie did bump into the netminder as he went for the puck.
The Kraken challenged the goal and after what seemed like an
interminable e delay the officials ruled in Seattle’s favor. Hakstol once again
credited the Kraken’s replay team of Tim Ohashi and Brady Morgan who sent word
to the bench to challenge the call. And they have a high rate of success the
past two seasons.
The Kraken tied and took the lead in the third period. Vince
Dunn scored off a cross-ice pass from Andre Burakovsky, who had perhaps his
best game of the season. Oliver Bjorkstrand then gave Seattle the lead when he
redirected Will Borgen’s shot from the blue line. Ironically, coach Hakstol had
switched Burakovsky and Bjorkstrand before the game. Burakovsky moved to a line
with Yanni Gourde and Eeli Tolvanen and Bjorkstrand joined the line of Alex
Wennberg and Jaden Schwartz.
Then finally there was the hat trick celebration without the
hat trick. When Pastrnak fired home a shot from the right circle (his office) to
give tie the game, Bruin fans assuming that was Pastrnak’s third goal (he has
48 goals and 37 assists on the season) flooded the ice with hats.
Unfortunately, the goal was awarded to Pastrnak’s teammate
Charlie Coyle on a tip-in. Kudos though, to a pint-sized lass wearing a Pastrnak
jersey, who tried to clear the glass with a hat about four times (she looked
about four years old) before making a successful toss.
“We’re in a race right now,” said Bjorkstrand. “Every game
is huge. We can’t afford to lose a lot more games right now. We’re hungry every
game. That’s the way it’s got to be.”
The Kraken face Pittsburgh tomorrow night, followed by a
Saturday matinee against Edmonton which ends a six-game homestand.
Scoring Summary
First Period
B- David Pastrnak (Kevin Shattenkirk, Jesper Boqvist) 5:53
Second Period
S- Jordan Eberle (unassisted) PPG 4:45. B- Pastrnak (Pavel
Zacha) 17:08.
Third Period
S- Vince Dunn 11 (Andre
Burakovsky 8, Yanni Gourde 15) 5 :29.
S- Oliver Bjorkstrand (Will Borgen 19, Alex Wennberg 15) 14:30. B-
Charlie Coyle (Pastrnak, Brad Marchand) 17:08.
Overtime
No score.
Shootout
S- Kailler Yamamoto score.
B- Charlie Coyle stop
S- Tomas Tatar stop.
B- Charlie McAvoy stop.
S- Matty Beniers stop.
B- David Pastrnak stop
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