Hey, as long as the Seattle Kraken play the Anaheim Ducks every game, they’ll be just fine. Unfortunately, that’s not how NHL scheduling works, so they do still have to face other teams, but this two-game sweep by Seattle offered a nice respite from the losing that we had come to expect.
It wasn’t easy or particularly pretty on Thursday, and the first two periods were rather dull. But the third period got chaotic after the Kraken gave up two short-handed goals in a span of 44 seconds and put themselves up against the ropes.
“I guess it’s how you answer, and our power play answered,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Obviously, to give up the sloppy goals back to back that we did can be catastrophic in a game. Fortunately for us, we had another opportunity coming, and those guys were able to capitalize and get one back.”
Indeed, the Kraken took advantage of a whole raft of Ducks swimming to the penalty box, especially in the third period, and skated away with a 4-2 win.
Takeaway #1: Tye Kartye plays hero
It had been a long time since Tye Kartye scored a goal—he went 25 games without one, in fact—before Yanni Gourde found him streaking down the slot for the eventual game-winner on Friday.
“Yeah, it felt pretty good,” Kartye said with a sheepish grin.
Through the recent long stretch of poor efforts from the Kraken, Kartye stood out as a player that was giving it his all every single night, so it was good to see him get rewarded in this one.
“He’s one of the guys up front that consistently plays a hard, heavy game, plays a straight-line game,” Hakstol said. “I know he’s still growing as a player, he’s still learning to find his spots and pick his spots. But he plays a straight-line game, and he’s most effective when he’s doing that and when he’s physical.”
Kartye was also seen mucking it up with various Ducks throughout this game, and Hakstol said that it was him, Gourde, and Brandon Tanev that helped will the Kraken back into the lead after they fell behind 2-1 in the third period.
“I don’t think we’ve had many third-period comebacks this year… I mean, I guess it wasn’t a comeback,” Kartye said. “But yeah, it feels good, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”
Takeaway #2: Chaotic third period
This was a strange game, in general. The first 40 minutes were relatively uneventful, with Jaden Schwartz scoring the lone goal by falling down in the crease and having Jordan Eberle’s 400th career assist bank in off his stick.
So, Seattle took a 1-0 lead to the third, but things when haywire in the final 20. On one power play, the Kraken allowed two separate partial breakaways to Isac Lundestrom and Jakob Silfverberg, and both ended up in the back of the Kraken’s net for short-handed goals. With a manpower advantage, they went from ahead 1-0 to down 2-1.
“I feel like we stayed positive, and we knew there’s still a lot of time left,” Kartye said. “That’s why we were able to sneak one out there.”
Indeed, Andre Burakovsky got Seattle’s second power-play goal to tie the game at 6:25, then Kartye scored at 13:03, and Matty Beniers tipped home a Jared McCann shot at 15:35 to solidify the win.
“I thought [McCann] got a stick on it because his stick was right there,” Burakovsky said of his tying goal. “I told him to go first in line and fist bump the boys, but he said he didn’t touch it. I mean, it went in either way, so it was nice to see it go in.”
Takeaway #3: Terrible discipline from the Ducks
Helping bail Seattle out was horrendous discipline from Anaheim, which took a total of 12 penalties in the game and gave the Kraken 10 power-play opportunities, on which the Kraken converted thrice. Kartye’s goal also came just a few seconds after a power play had ended.
Trevor Zegras, who returned from a long-term ankle injury for Tuesday’s game and was mostly unnoticeable in these two matchups, made a bone-headed play at 5:21 of the third period, just a couple minutes after Silfverberg had given Anaheim the lead.
Racing up the boards with Tanev, Zegras took a holding penalty (though that call perhaps could have gone the other way), then let his emotions get the better of him and cross checked Tanev in the back to earn a second penalty. The infraction was announced as four minutes for cross checking, but that was later changed to two for holding and two for cross checking, which made more sense.
Zegras then took his frustration out on the penalty box camera for some reason. We hope he has to pay for that damage.
It was during the four-minute power play that Burakovsky scored his tying goal and got Seattle back on track.
Zegras did not play another shift after that. We know he has been in trade rumors, and that some folks have said Seattle should try to get him this offseason. Of course, he’s fresh off a major injury, but these two games did nothing to indicate that he would be a fit in Seattle or that he would do anything to help push the club forward. No thanks.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.