Daccord shines, Ovie scores, Kraken lose

-

 


With just under five minutes remaining in last night’s game between the Seattle Kraken and the Washington Capitals, the Kraken, trailing 2-0, pulled goalie Joey Daccord for an extra attacker.

Suddenly, the chant of `Ovie, Ovie’ started up as there were numerous Capital fans in the stands clad in their red jerseys and sweaters. The fans wanted to see Alex Ovechkin score what would be his 875th career goal, only 20 behind Wayne Gretzky, the NHL’s all-time goal scoring leader.

The Capital fans (and maybe a few Kraken fans, the ones not already heading to the exits) got their wish as Ovechkin fired a shot from the right-wing boards into the empty cage.

That gave the visiting Capitals a 3-0 victory, although the game wasn’t that close. Washington, which recently passed Winnipeg as the leading point getter in the league, won its sixth consecutive game, improving to 33-10-5 on the season.

The Kraken fall to 21-25-2 on the year in a contest that saw the home team have only ten shots on goal until late in the second period.

Washington goalkeeper Charlie Lindgren, playing his first game since Jan. 10 when he suffered an upper-body injury against the Montreal Canadiens, registered his first shutout of the season. Lindgren’s best save came in the second period when he stopped Oliver Bjorkstrand on a breakaway.

Lindgren, with 22 saves was voted number one star of the game, but Daccord, playing in his 100th National Hockey League game was the busier netminder. Daccord kept Seattle in the game, stopping a total of four Washington breakaways, 30 saves overall.

“That was a game against a good team, and we weren’t able to abate their pressure enough to be able to get to our pressure,” Seattle coach Dan Bylsma said. “It was a tough-sledding game, for sure.”

The first period was scoreless, although the Caps appeared to score an early goal four minutes into the period. Martin Fehervary fired home a 25-footer but linemate Nic Dowd was clearly offsides.

The Capitals outshoot the Kraken in the opening frame,15-7, with  Daccord stopping Andrew Mangiapane on a breakaway. Mangiapane swerved to his left and Daccord sprawled and covered the entire side of the net with pads. Moments after that, Daccord stopped Connor McMichael on a partial break.

Washington finally broke the scoring ice at 4:36 of the second period. After Daccord made a save on Pierre-Luc Dubois, Aliaksei Protas’ rebound shot hit the stick of defenseman Vince Dunn and Daccord’s glove before going into the net.

Ethan Frank made it 2-0 on another breakaway. Daccord kicked out the initial shot but Frank scored on the rebound. Over the first two periods, Washington had 40 shot attempts, 23 shots on goal and 11 misfires.

``(The Capitals) make it hard to get chances,’’ said Bjorkstrand. ``So, it’s a game of patience (Daccord) did his job. He played strong. If you don’t score, you don’t win. So, you’ve got to score.”

Even in a losing effort, Daccord appreciated Ovechkin’s efforts.

“He’s an incredible player – he’s most likely going to break this record,” said Daccord ``Just to get the opportunity to compete against the best in the world, including him, is very special. I can remember me and my buddy Jack playing Xbox in his room, playing NHL ’08 as Alex Ovechkin and trying to score goals. So, it was fun to try to not let him score tonight.”

Seattle’s Chandler Stephenson missed the third period with an undisclosed injury.

The Kraken conclude their homestand tomorrow night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Scoring Summary

First Period

No scoring

Second Period

W- Aliaksei Protas (Pierre Luc-Dubois) 4:36.

W- Ethan Frank (unassisted) 18:05.

Third Period

W- Alex Ovechkin (Trevor Van Riemsdyk, Jakob Chykran).empty net,

Shots on Goal- Washington 32 (Connor McMichael 5) Seattle 22 (Brandon Tanev, Josh Mahura, Brandon Montour 2.

Hits- Washington 8 (Ton Wilson, Martin Fehervary 2) Seattle 16 (Brandon Tanev 3).

Penalty Minutes- Washington 2, Seattle 0.

Faceoffs- Washington 61.5% Seattle 38.5%.

Blocked Shots- Washington 22 (Trevor van Riemsdyk 4) Seattle 8 (Shane Wright 2)

Referees- Frederic L’Ecuyer, Brandon Schrader. Linesmen- Bryan Panich, MitchHunt.

Three Stars- 1. Charlie Lindgren, W. Ethan Frank, W. 3. Joey Daccord, S.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Seattle's first major league team?

-
Image
With the widely rumored return of the Seattle Sonics, the Emerald City would surely be considered a `major league' city in the sports world. Of course, that wasn't always the case. The ill-fated Seattle Pilots came and went in 1969, but if you were a local sports fan your appetite was wetted by University of Washington football (Seattle's primary sports team for many years) and minor league baseball and hockey. But not many people know that a major league team - a world champion no less- moved to the Pacific Northwest in the winter of 1959-1960. The Chicago Westerners, the 1959 world champions in the wild-and-wacky pseudo sport of the Roller Derby appeared at the venue that was known as various times as the Seattle Civic Arena, Seattle Ice Arena and Mercer Arena. While the Ravens also skated games in Spokane and Portland, four games that were televised from the Civic Arena can be found on YouTube - two games apiece against the New York Chiefs and the Los Angeles Braves.  It...
Read more

Farewell to Pete Carroll

-
                                                  Farewell To Pete Carroll The Seattle Seahawks made longtime coach Pete Carroll a `special advisor’ two days after the 72-year-old Carroll announced he had no plans to leave coaching. Kudos to Channel 7, which accurately posted a cutline under a Carroll interview which read accurately ‘Carroll Fired.’ Seattle nation- `the 12’s’- registered their displeasure on social media. Well, some of them did. After all, Carroll’s the winningest coach in team history, including two Super Bowl appearances. But it was a different story 23 years ago when the New England Patriots announced they were relieving Carroll of his duties after three seasons with the team. Ironically, Carroll’s 27-21 mark as Pats’ head coach was the second-best winning percentage in the team’s history behind guess who? - Bill Belichick. But author J...
Read more

Kraken acquire Larry David's favorite player

-
Image
The Seattle Kraken acquired Kaapo Kakko today from the New York Rangers today in exchange for defenseman Will Borgen and a third round and sixth round pick in the upcoming NHL amateur draft. As often happens, Seattle fans were sorry to see Borgen go. An original Kraken, one of the more physical players on the team, a fan favorite, and Matty Beniers roommate. To say that New York fans feel the same way about Kakko would be an understatement. Ranger Nation has universally panned the deal of social media and coupled with the trading of captain Jacob Trouba last week, fans are calling for the scalp of Ranger GM Chris Drury. However, the most interesting aspect of this trade is that Kakko was a particular favorite of longtime New York sports fan and star of TV’s  Curb Your Enthusiasm,  Larry David. The iconoclastic comedian appeared on Michael Kay’s ESPN radio show a couple of years ago berating then Rangers’ coach David Quinn for benching Kakko. (on a personal note, this writer co...
Read more