Two eventful victories

 

 Just when it looked like the Seattle Kraken didn’t have a realistic shot at making the playoffs, the Kraken rattled off two road wins in two nights and are back in ninth place in the Western Division. After last night’s 4-3 thriller over the Winnipeg Jets, the Kraken are six points out of a playoff berth, after being nine points out three days ago.

On Monday, the Kraken posted their 100^th all-time victory a 4-2 verdict over the Calgary Flames in what some observers labeled a `nasty’ game. That moved Seattle past the Flames in the standings and last night in Winnipeg, with single-digit temperatures outside, the Kraken rallied for a 4-3 victory, moving them in a tie with idle St. Louis.

“This was a team effort,” said forward Tomas Tatar, who notched his first goal in 11 games. “We came here late (the Kraken arrived in Winnipeg 3:30 yesterday morning), and to win back-to-back road games. Everybody on the team contributed.”

Joey Daccord, who’s had a bit of a respite after being pulled from a 5-2 loss to Minnesota ten days ago, may have come up with the save of the year to preserve the win. Winnipeg’s Mark Schliefele knocked the stick out of Daccord’s hands as he cruised by the net, and then teammate Neal Pionk unleashed a slap shot from the left circle with the final seconds ticking off the clock. Daccord dove from one side of the crease to the other and slapped the puck away with his glove.

The contest was a matchup between Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Daccord, two of the top five goalies in the league in save percentage. But after Daccord, it wasn’t the `usual suspects,’ who led the Kraken to victory.

Winnipeg took a 3-2 lead on goals in the final minute of the second period and a little over a minute into the third stanza. The Kraken needed a response goal and got one from Tatar. The veteran forward, standing in front of the net deflected a shot from Matty Beniers to tie the game.

Andre Burakovsky, who’s had an injury-plagued run with the Kraken after being one of the team’s top scorers the first half of last season, scored the game winning power play goal with three plus minutes remaining.

Burakovsky scored off a pass from rookie defenseman Ryker Evans, playing his first action with the big club since Feb. 13 and also seeing power play time due to a controversial injury to Vince Dunn the previous night.

“Coming off a loss to Edmonton where we played pretty well, to get two hard-fought road wins is huge,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol, who noted, ``Nobody in the room cares who gets the goals.”

Justin Schultz, who moved up to the first power-play unit in Dunn’s absence recorded the only goal in the first period. After Kyle Connor tied the game for the Jets, Jared McCann scored a short-handed goal for the second consecutive night. The two goals even looked similar, with McCann twice scoring on a breakaway.

Defensively, Adam Larsson had six blocked shots and Pierre Edouard-Bellemare, returning from an injury (he hasn’t played since December) won some key faceoffs and had two blocked shots.

The Kraken were also missing Alex Wennberg in the last two games. Wennberg’s absence was attributed to ``trade matters” as Seattle expects to trade Wennberg by Friday’s trade deadline and don’t want him injured. Wennberg’s contract runs out at the end of the season when he would become an unrestricted free agent. Jordan Eberle, Schultz and Tatar, who the Kraken acquired in December are also on the last year of their contracts.

Of greater concern; the condition of Vince Dunn, the leading point-getter among Kraken defenseman. In Monday’s contest after McCann’s goal had given the Kraken a two-goal lead, Calgary’s Martin Pospisil ran Dunn from behind ramming him face first into the boards. Pospisil received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct.

Hakstol, who can be very diplomatic at times, called it a `garbage’ hit. In the first six seconds of the game, Pospisil took a run at Larsson. The officials, apparently feeling the hit was from the side, didn’t call a penalty, but the hit led to a fight between Pospisil and Seattle’s Tye Kartye later in the game.

The league’s holding a disciplinary hearing on Pospisil today and it’s hard to see him not receiving a suspension as he was ejected from a game a couple of weeks ago for a similar hit on Boston Bruins’ defenseman Matt Grzelcyk.

As for Dunn, the Kraken should have a better idea on his condition as the team returns home today and then takes the ice on Friday night for a rematch with the Jets. Friday will be `Women’s Hockey Night’ at Climate Pledge Arena.

Scoring Summary

First Period

S- Justin Schultz 6 (Oliver Bjorkstrand 29, Jared McCann 24) 8:45.

Second Period

W- Kyle Connor (Mark Scheifele, Vladislav Namestnikov) 8:07. S- McCann 27 (Yanni Gourde 16, Jamie Oleksiak 8) SH, 17 :56. W- Adam Lowry (Mason Appleton, Dylan Samberg) 19:51.

Third Period

W- Nino Niederreiter (Appleton, Lowry) 1:17. S- Tomas Tatar 8 (Matty Beniers 8, Jordan Eberle 23) 1:42. S- Andre Burakovsky 2 (Ryker Evans 5, McCann 25) PPG, 17:21.

Shots On Goal- Seattle 24, Winnipeg 33.

Penalty Minutes- Seattle 4, Winnipeg 2.

Faceoffs- Seattle 44.7% Winnipeg 55.2%.

Referees- Francis Charron, Garret Rank. Linesmen- Andrew Smith, Jonathan Deschamps.

Three Stars- 1. Jared McCann, S. 2. Adam Lowry, W. 3. Joey Daccord, S.