It took less than a minute in Dallas on Wednesday to realize it wasn’t going to be the Seattle Kraken’s night. The Dallas Stars scored early, built a first period lead, and held on to win 5-2, sending the Kraken to a season worst seventh straight loss.
Joe Pavelski had a big night for Dallas (18-13-2) by scoring two tap-in goals to go with three assists, Jake Oettinger kicked out 23 Kraken bids, and the stars improved to 14-3-1 at American Airlines Center.
Seattle (10-21-4) got another strong night from Jared McCann who scored his career best 15th goal of the year and added an assist for his second straight multi-point game. Philipp Grubauer got the start and made 20 saves but didn’t get a ton of help from the guys in front of him.
“Enough’s enough here,” McCann said. “Everybody’s getting pretty frustrated. We know, in order for us to win, we have to play a full 60 minutes and it hasn’t been the case lately.”
Trailing 3-1 in the second period, McCann gave the Kraken some life when he buried a shot after Jordan Eberle made a nice cross-crease pass to him. After a lackluster first period, the Kraken continued to push after cutting the lead, but an ill-advised pass along the boards was intercepted, and the Stars found Pavelski for a tap-in goal at 18:37 of the second to make it 4-2.
“It sucks to lose,” Calle Jarnkrok, who scored a goal Wednesday, said. “You play this game to win games and winning games is fun. We’re pissed off tonight but we have a new chance tomorrow to win a hockey game and hopefully we can get two points tomorrow.”
Bad first period put Kraken behind the eight-ball
“Number one, this team starts really good in their building,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We didn’t match that in the first… It’s tough to come back from behind in this league.”
The good Dallas start came in the first minute when Jason Robertson’s shot at 50 seconds was deflected by Roope Hintz and Kraken defender Mark Giordano into the net to make it 1-0 early. Hintz was credited with the goal, but Robertson extended a point streak to 12 straight games with the assist.
Seattle got a push back and tied the game at 1-1 at 8:25 with a power-play goal by Jarnkrok.
The period was all Dallas after that, however.
Pavelski knocked a rebound off the end boards into a wide open net to make it 2-1 at 11:00. On the play, Grubauer was screened by Jamie Oleksiak and Hintz. He never saw the original shot and was not able to react to get over on Pavelski.
At 13:01, Pavelski got it to Robertson in close and he would score with a backhand on a 5-on-3 power play to make it 3-1.
“There’s always momentum shifts in hockey games,” Hakstol said. “There’s going to be back and forth. They won the first period and that’s on us. We know this team comes out hard in the first and they beat us in the first period.”
How bad was the first for the Kraken? Dallas took 60% of five-on-five shot attempts and created six even-strength scoring chances to none for Seattle.
The Kraken found their legs in the second period. McCann’s second goal in as many games cut the lead to 3-2 at 5:38.
Seattle got looks but couldn’t find the equalizer and then were done in by a mistake. Ryan Donato’s blind, backhand pass around the net and up the boards was picked off by Esa Lindell, which set up Pavelski’s second to make it 4-2.
Jani Hakanpaa scored on the empty net at 18:18 to erase any doubt and make it 5-2.
“Our second and third periods were, effort wise, real good,” Hakstol said. “We turned the game, made a mistake at the end of the second to give the two-goal lead back. I have no issue at all with our effort and compete in the second and third periods, but we didn’t match them in the first.”
Grubauer’s night not as bad as the numbers look
When you look at his stat sheet, you see that Grubauer allowed four goals for the second straight game. But, those numbers are misleading when you look at how the goals were scored.
The first two Dallas goals came after the Kraken were guilty of icing the puck and setting up face-offs in the Seattle end. The first goal deflected off two players, including one of his own, and in. The second goal he was screened, partially by one of his own players, and was unable to see the shot.
Dallas’ third goal was on a 5-on-3 power play and the fourth came after a bad pass by Donato that caught the Kraken defense out of position.
There’s no question that Grubauer has struggled this season, but it’s on nights like Wednesday where it’s evident that not all the goals are completely his fault.
Tentacle Tales
+ Shots were even at 25 apiece Wednesday.
+ The Kraken were without center Morgan Geekie who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Max McCormick stepped into the lineup.
+ Joe Pavelski became the first NHL player age 37 or older to record at least five points in a game since Teemu Selanne (40 years, 268 days) on March 28, 2011 (3-2=5).
+ Seattle has little time to lick its wounds and will be back in action Thursday against the St. Louis Blues.
I don’t think anyone would say that all goals are Grubauer’s fault, but D Zone starts? For $6m are D Zone faceoffs off the table? That just sounds like making excuses. There’s always a screen or a tip or an odd man rush… and what’r ya gonna do? He’s the unluckiest goalie in 25 years… Jason Robertson deked him out of his jock… but his .833 was actually really good.
Moneypuck.
Oettinger xGA 2.708
Grubauer xGA 2.017
You know, Daryl, I’m beginning to think you’re not a very big Grubauer fan. Lol
Did you check out Dom’s player cards?
McDavid is on pace to be worth 5.6 wins this season. Grubauer is on pace to be worth -9.6 wins – also known as loses. We need a McDavid-and-two-thirds to make up for Gru… Just sayin’
Go Kraken!!!
Darren, thanks for all your hard work writing on behalf of the Kraken this year! Though, I firmly believe that our biggest problem is our defense. We make other teams looking like forechecking hall of gamers because of our inability/unwillingness to play physical in our own end!! We regularly are dispossessed of the puck in own own end. Our checks do not result in turnovers. We regularly pass the puck blindly up the boards that results in scoring opportunities for the opponent. I thought we built this team on defense. NOT! We need to start shaking the glass and boards in our own end and knock some players on the butt!! I also believe Gio has become an absolute liability in own own end while still being an asset on the power play. Am I the only one who sees our deficiencies this way? I’d love your comments! Thank you!
Thanks for the kind words, Ron, although Andy actually wrote this story. Ha!
I have a hard time pinning the struggles of the team on the guys on the blue line or at any one position. The team as a whole actually has good numbers in terms of the chances it gives up, but there does seem to be a tendency for their mistakes in the neutral and d-zones to be catastrophic.
For me, the problem is that this team has to play close to perfect hockey to win. There just isn’t enough offensive skill to overcome those catastrophic mistakes. On that little stretch when they were winning games, they were doing everything right, and the guys were playing like the Cup was on the line. Teams can’t play at that level for 82 games, though. Winning teams don’t always have their best game, but they still find ways to win because they have enough skill to overcome errors.
Thank for your reply Darren! I still think we need to be stronger and FAR more physical on the blue line. Of course, we need to score more and that starts with putting the puck on the net! I had no expectations coming into the season (as a long time Whaler and Francis fan) except that our team would be competitive and fun to watch. The future is bright and I’m all in! Go Kraken!!🦑
Is icing a catastrophic failure?
Usually, no. But with this team… ?