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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