After a promising win Friday night against the Stanley Cup champions, the Seattle Kraken collapsed against the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks, losing 5-4 at the United Center on Sunday.

The Blackhawks (3-2-0) scored twice in the third period to erase a 4-3 Kraken lead and move ahead. Seattle (2-3-2) dominated the first 15 minutes of play, but poor special teams allowed the Blackhawks to get back in the game.

“Disappointing loss,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We did a lot of things that get you beat on the road. You look at our faceoffs and specialty teams early, including a short-handed goal that really feeds them and gives them life in the hockey game, down to most importantly just the way we checked and played without the puck in the last 45 minutes of the hockey game.”

Seattle outshot the Blackhawks 34-27, but the combination of the Kraken’s 0-for-4 power play plus Chicago’s 2-for-3 power play and a short-handed goal played huge.

Chicago was led by two goals from Tyler Johnson and two assists from Seth Jones. Alex Stalock made 30 saves for the Blackhawks who won for the second straight game.

“They pressured up ice which I thought, it was difficult to handle,” Matty Beniers said about the Seattle power play. “I think they were just in lanes, blocked some shots and had some good saves.”

Seattle took a 4-3 lead at 10:43 of the second period when Vince Dunn jumped in the zone and Jared McCann hit his tape with a pass. Dunn scored his first of the season.

Despite looking like Seattle may be in control, the Blackhawks scored twice in 13 seconds during the third period to tie and then take the lead.

First it was Johnson for his second at 12:57 of the period. After the Kraken threw the puck away behind the net, it found its way to Johnson in front. Dickinson would then score from the faceoff circle to give Chicago a 5-4 lead.

The Blackhawks scored those two goals in the third despite only having five shots on goal.

McCann had a goal and an assist, Beniers scored a goal, and Martin Jones allowed five goals on 22 shots.

“Our play was sporadic,” Hakstol said. “In the third period we had the game going the way we wanted to. It comes down to, we made two mistakes. One is on a breakout which is just a simple read for everybody, but we ad-libbed. And the game winner right after, it is just on a return to D-zone and getting to the right spot, and we didn’t do those things. Those are things that come back to haunt you and they do it quick.”

How it played out

McCann scored his third goal of the season and second in two games to make it 1-0 at 5:46 of the first period. McCann started the play by sending a pass to Karson Kuhlman who found Morgan Geekie in the middle of the ice on the rush. Geekie slid it over to McCann who scored on an open net.

Under two minutes later, at 7:31, Jordan Eberle stole the puck on the half boards in Chicago’s end and slid it to Andre Burakovsky who buried his third of the year to give the Kraken a 2-0 lead.

Chicago cut the lead to 2-1 with its NHL-leading fourth short-handed goal at 17:04 when former Everett Silvertips Jujhar Khaira tapped in a pass from Colin Blackwell.

Before the period was over, the Blackhawks tied the game, 2-2, on a power-play goal by the Spokane native Johnson.

The Blackhawks scored an early goal on the power play to take a 3-2 lead 32 seconds into the second period when Max Domi put back a rebound.

Matty Beniers responded just 19 seconds later to tie the game at 3-3 when Jaden Schwartz’s pass was deflected but still got through to the crease where Beniers banged it in.

“We’ve got to stay on the gas,” McCann said. “There’s no easy way to put it, we let off. They’ve got players who can make plays… you can’t let up on a team like that.”

In the numbers

By all accounts this should have been a game the Kraken won. They had a 54.5 percent advantage in unblocked shot attempts while playing 5-on-5 and enjoyed 58 percent of the shot quality.

Rookie forward Shane Wright was only on the ice for 5:51 of ice time, took no shots, but was on the ice for a goal. McCann and Dunn each had four shots on goal to lead Seattle, and Adam Larsson led the team in ice time with 22:24.

Tentacle Tales

  • McCann had multiple points for the second consecutive game. He scored multiple points 12 times last season, most on the Kraken roster.
  • Jordan Eberle had an assist Sunday on Burakovsky’s goal. It was career point 599 for Eberle, and he’s one point away from joining Steven Stamkos (981 points) and Erik Karlsson (665) as the third player from the 2008 NHL Draft class to reach 600 NHL Points.
  • Sunday was the third time this season that the Kraken have allowed five goals. They are 0-2-1 in those games.
  • Sunday was the second multi-goal comeback in a row for Chicago.
  • Jones started in place of Philipp Grubauer who was injured Friday night and is day-to-day with a lower body injury. Joey Daccord was recalled from AHL Coachella Valley.
  • The Kraken were without forward Yanni Gourde who was home with a ‘personal matter.’
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