…And in his 28th NHL game, Berkly Catton was officially off the schneid. The 19-year-old rookie connected with his teammates for his first and second career goals on Tuesday, helping the Seattle Kraken to a head-spinning 7-4 win over the Boston Bruins.
The victory extended Seattle’s win streak to four games (the win streak is hereby named Win Streak David, per the National Win Streak Service, named after David Pastrnak) and their point streak to nine games, improving to 8-0-1 over that stretch. It also meant they swept their third back-to-back in their four recent tries, picking up an almost unfathomable 15 of 16 possible points in those pairs of games.
The two teams ahead of the Kraken in the standings, Edmonton and Vegas, both won Tuesday. So, Seattle didn’t leapfrog into first place as they could have if those other teams lost, but they did hold serve and also gained two points of breathing room on fourth-place Los Angeles. It was a big win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 7-4 Kraken win over the Bruins.
Takeaway 1: Catton’s big night
For as good as Catton has been in his first NHL season, you just knew it was eating him up that he hadn’t put the puck in the net yet. After scoring a combined 92 goals in 125 games over his last two seasons in the WHL, and considering he’s been playing on good lines with good players throughout the season, it was shocking that he hadn’t even gotten a fluky one to go in.
That is, of course, until the dam finally broke for Catton on Tuesday.
At 2:48 of the second period, with a delayed penalty coming, Jared McCann fed Catton in the right circle off a rush. From a sharp angle, Catton let it rip. The puck pinballed off the inside of Jeremy Swayman’s blocker and in. Jubilation and relief swept across the young winger’s face as he celebrated with McCann, who Catton later referred to as a “mentor.”
BERKLYYYYYYYYYYY! 🐱 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 7, 2026
Berkly Catton FINALLY does it! With a delayed penalty coming, Jared McCann sets him up, and he rips it through Swayman.
Gotta love that smile! 1st career goal at long last.
2-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/vGTX5iOPb0
“A lot of weight off the shoulders for sure,” Catton said. “I dreamed of that for a long time, so that was awesome… I kind of just blacked out there. I don’t even know where it went in, to be honest.”
“It’s the best,” McCann said. “I said ‘finally’ [when I celebrated with him]. He’s been working really hard, and we were due. Just keep plugging away. I’m really happy for him.”
Once he got the monkey off his back, what did Catton do? Score his second one, of course.
With the game seemingly out of reach for Boston—although it did get a hair close for comfort in the end—at 5-2, Catton came out with the second power-play unit. He made a ridiculous play to pass to Freddy Gaudreau at the blue line and then slice his way through four defenders, suddenly getting behind all of them at once. Gaudreau threaded a beautiful pass back to him, and Catton deked to his backhand and banked it off the post and in to make it 6-2.
BERKLY SCORES AGAIN! 🐱 🐱 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 7, 2026
Sick finish off Gaudreau's area pass to make it 6-2, but then Mason Lohrei just answered to make it 6-3 #SeaKraken. pic.twitter.com/E9AnaW0uxG
“I figured maybe if I get one, they would start to come a little bit more,” Catton said. “So, that one felt good too… Great pass by Freddy. He kind of gave me a breakaway, and I just got it up, and it went in.”
Coach Lane Lambert also had some nice words about Catton when I asked him what it meant to see his young rookie break through.
“I thought it was awesome,” Lambert said. “I’ve said a few times… that once he scores, I think he’ll score a few. Obviously, he scored another one tonight as well, beautiful goal, by the way, and it’s huge. He’s a well-liked teammate, he works, he’s learning, he’s growing. And I’ve said it many, many times, I love the way he wants the puck.”
Takeaway 2: Critical power-play goal
Something that could get lost in the shuffle of everything that happened in this game is that it was anybody’s contest, tied 2-2, until the final two minutes of the second period. At that point, Jordan Eberle had scored on a 5-on-3, Catton had gotten his first, and Pastrnak had scored two bangers.
Wow, what a goal by David Pastrnak!
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 7, 2026
Tempers then flare after Ryker Evans throws him into the end boards.
1-1 #SeaKraken #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/hr69tPHKHc
The fourth line, which was altered for this game (more on that in the Bonus Takeaway), connected yet again when Tye Kartye found Ben Meyers for a bang-bang goal at 18:23 of the second to make it 3-2.
Then, with the clock winding down, McCann scored a critical buzzer-beater that I believe was the most important goal of the contest. With seven seconds left, McCann whistled a one-timer off the glass that nearly went all the way out of the offensive zone. But Vince Dunn saved it at the blue line and fed McCann again higher in the zone. This time, McCann’s shot was perfectly placed, and it appeared to beat the horn, even though the green end-of-period light had come on behind Swayman, not the red goal light.
MCCANN CAN! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 7, 2026
It's a power-play goal with 0.5 seconds left on the clock! The green light came on, but the puck was already in. #SeaKraken take a 4-2 lead to the dressing room after 2 periods. pic.twitter.com/M7sdTUeOLw
Review showed that the puck crossed the line with 0.5 seconds left—a massive break for the Kraken that sent them to the room with a two-goal cushion.
“I saw the [green] light on, so I didn’t know if I got it in in time,” McCann said. “So I looked at the bench, and everybody’s like, kind of looking at me dumbfounded, and I don’t think they did, really, either. So, yeah, luckily it went in [in time].”
In the third, Seattle ran up the score enough that the Bruins’ late push was—albeit slightly scary—ultimately too little and too late.
Takeaway 3: The Kraken are a scoring machine
The Kraken have been dumped on by many throughout this season for being one of the lower-scoring teams in the NHL, but if those naysayers watched only these last two games, they would think Seattle is an elite offensive club. In just over 24 hours, the Kraken racked up 12 goals in two contests after potting five in Calgary on Monday and then seven against Boston on Tuesday—the most they’ve scored in a game this season.
“Pucks are going in for us,” Lambert said. “I mean, we had some opportunities in those games when we were low scoring where we maybe couldn’t quite find the back of the net. But things are going in right now. Sometimes it has a way of ebbs and flows of the season, that kind of thing.”
Added McCann: “It was kind of a run-and-gun type of game tonight, not something we’re used to kind of playing. We showed that we could score goals, but we know we can be a bit better defensively.”
It was a nice stat-padding night for a lot of players, with Kaapo Kakko getting two goals and an assist, Catton scoring twice, McCann posting a goal and an assist, and Vince Dunn and Matty Beniers each recording two assists.
I do want to ring a very small alarm bell, though, related to that last comment from McCann. Sometimes when a defense-first team suddenly has a big offensive outburst, it can lead to bad habits and cracks in structure. The Kraken have gotten to this point by playing “the right way,” so look for them to get back to that against an outstanding Minnesota Wild team on Thursday.
Bonus Takeaway: Kartye returns, fourth line changed
Eeli Tolvanen was a late scratch due to illness, replaced in the lineup by Kartye, who had been a healthy scratch for three games. Considering how well the trio of Ryan Winterton, Meyers, and Jacob Melanson had been clicking, I was surprised—and frankly didn’t like—that Lambert chose to move Winterton up the lineup instead of keeping that line together and slotting Kartye into Tolvanen’s spot.
But to Lambert’s credit, the fourth line once again came through, and it was Kartye who picked up the assist on the goal.
“I liked Tye tonight,” Lambert said. “The hard decision [to scratch Kartye] came [a week] ago. I thought he played really well in Anaheim, I thought he played well in LA, and then we had some numbers, so he came out of the lineup. It wasn’t like he was playing poorly. And him and Meyers and Melanson were playing well in those games too, so I put that line back together. I just thought Winterton was a better fit to go up there with [Chandler] Stephenson and playing sort of a top-six role that plays against the Pastrnak line.”
Lambert could have even tougher decisions coming soon, if Tolvanen comes back next game and Jaden Schwartz is also ready to go.
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.
Go Kraken!!@
All my angst and despair from a month ago has been transmuted by victory. I can’t imagine how it feels to cheer for a seriously contending club with expectations and all that. What a fun game to watch.
Well overall said Darren.
The mixture of veterans and youth is now showing positive results.
The Kraken are absolutely on fire!
3rd jersey win – now we can wear them without fear.
Lambert was right about putting Winterton in the top 6 position vs Kartye. Winterton has certainly gelled with the rest of the fourth line and they are playing amazingly well together, but he is also a tad more defensively responsible than Kartye, so makes sense to put him up on Chandlers line. What a team we are seeing right now! Hopefully they can keep riding this momentum into the playoffs!
Yes agree and if memory recalls correctly the 4th was doing very well with Kartye before the Winterton move. I think it was the right decision, Winterton I think has a better ability to play up and down the lineup.
I’m really curious about what happens to Fleury when Monty gets back, it seems like he’s falling into LL’s favorites category and getting a lot of ice time recently. He seems like a very good overall player, hits well, passes well, makes good decisions, has some offensive skills.
Very happy to see Catton get his first and a wicked second. He definitely has been working hard.
I don’t feel that the (third?) Boston goal should have counted. Joey definitely had that puck covered then a mob closed in and I don’t believe that the refs saw the puck just saw people digging and assumed it was free. It too a very long time for them to dig that puck out, long enough that it should have been blown dead. I feel they went against their training and didn’t blow a play they are trained to blow. Didn’t matter in the end I guess?
Catton’s (first) goal was exactly the energy boost the team needed last night. The second goal was the Berkly Catton who Spokane Chiefs fans know and love.
One of my favorite things about going to games in person is watching shift changes because that’s where the players really tend to let their guards down in terms of body language and facial expression. And in that first period guys were dragging back to the bench. I honestly didn’t think Kakko was going to make it through the game.
I really hope that whatever held Tolvanen out last night isn’t going to spread. Hopefully they can get Schwartz reactivated or possibly even pull Molgaard back up into the empty roster spot because I think they’re going to need some fresh legs for the upcoming road trip.
Overall, a most excellent end to The Curse.
Great win! Just enjoying these wins as they come. It’s a fun time for most hockey fans in Seattle. Half-way through the season in such a tight league, and we are right in the mix.
I’ve been hearing a lot of hand wringing about “what do we do with all these players when people are healthy?” Some things to consider.
1. Having depth and competition for roles is better than the alternative. We have seen the alternative, and it’s not good.
2. There are still 41 games to play PLUS potential playoffs. It’s very common for hockey players to get injured. In fact, someone could be playing through an injury right now, when they could be resting.
Having 3-4 extra players who can easily slot into the lineup is not a cause for concern. It’s a good thing.
Go Kraken!
Given the crazy schedule, I’d like to see them do a rotation with the healthy scratches rather than the ‘odd man out’ approach. Nothing wrong with scratching some of the top line guys if they need a rest.
Yes it’s definitely a good thing but the way most teams in the NHL do it is with guys like Mahura, inexpensive vets that can slide in and out of the lineup. What teams typically don’t do is fill the box with young players who need the ice time to progress their game. Those type of players should be playing hockey somewhere, if it’s not in the nhl it’s on the farm. This is just the way hockey works….
It’s nice that they sent Nyman to the AHL finally, that was way overdue if he wasn’t going to be playing regularly up here. Fleury and Kartye can’t be sent to the AHL but are in the category of players that are needing ice time to progress.
I don’t feel RF planned his roster very well, way too many middle level players who are above the press box level. It seems every year he picks up a few more when we already have a an over abundance of exactly what he signs already in the system. Very nice that he cut ties with one who shall not be named this season.
Well, actually the way it works is you have to earn your spot on an NHL roster, and if you aren’t ready when your opportunity comes, you lose your spot. A lot of these guys (Karts, Wints, Meyers, Fleury, Mahura) understand that and just feel very lucky to be given an opportunity any time they can get it. They themselves don’t view the NHL as a development league like a surprising number of fans do.
The reason other teams may have “inexpensive vets” for depth is because those vets are just a better option than their young prospects. For example, there is no way Seattle would bring up Sale or Rehkopf.
Re #2: there’s also still the trade deadline…despite Oleksiak playing better, I really don’t think the team plans to re-sign him and, even if they hang in for a playoff race, if they can get something good from an Eastern team in particular (ie not a potential early-round oppponent), I think he’ll go. Ditto for Schwartz.
I’m assuming they’re working to re-sign Tolvanen. And I think an Eberle re-sign is really up to Eberle and how badly he wants a cup.
Alternately, some of Seattle’s excess bottom-of-the-lineup players may also be targeted by teams looking for inexpensive depth. As another pending UFA, I could definitely see Meyers going to a team that needs a bottom-6 center. Or Kartye being reunited with either Yanni Gourde or Hakstol if Tampa or Colorado need someone.
If they’re in a playoff spot at the deadline I can’t see them trading Schwartz away. Oleksiak, sure.
Re-signing Tolvanen is going to be a tall task. What kind of contract do you offer a twenty-seven year-old switch-hitting forward with significant top-six experience who is on pace for over fifty points, eighty blocked shots, and two-hundred hits on the season? Oh, and he was a twenty goal scorer the season prior, and he plays on both the power play and the penalty kill. Just imagine if he comes home from the Olympics with a medal. Tolvy is set to get PAID this off-season by somebody, and his agent knows it. He does not have to be in a hurry to sign anything Botterill puts in front of him.
That said, I hope that Botterill can convince him, because Tolvanen is one of those guys who frees up a roster spot just by being able to do so many different things. For example, this year he has started getting assists, which had never been a big part of his game before. Swiss Army knives are always great to have. Good teams need a few of them.
Interesting. And why wouldn’t Seattle try to keep them?
That was the game of the year so far. It got me legitimately excited. Hopefully it opens the floodgates for Catton. Awesome to be in the building for his first goal (and second — what a beaut!).
Boist and I totally predicted there would be mandatory comments ruing the fact that the game was high-scoring. And sure enough, McCann — their top scorer (when healthy) — had to make that comment. OK, I get the point that this particular team with the personnel they have needs to play a tight checking game in general to have a chance. But it is this stupid NHL thing that playing “the right way” ALWAYS means low-event, low-scoring hockey, and EVERY team’s “identity” is always tight checking, and any high-scoring win must come with an apology. No other sport is like this — in every other sport (football, baseball, basketball…), some teams and some coaches are more defensive-minded, and other coaches and players can win high-scoring offense and are happy to do so. But in hockey, the latter is FORBIDDEN. It is too much fun. Shame, shame, shame, shame…
Perhaps more to the point — despite the final score, this was not really a “run and gun” game at all. The shot counts were not all that high. The Bruins did not score their goals on odd-man rushes and breakaways. I can’t recall the Kraken giving up a single one of those (although a lot happened in that game and I could have easily forgotten it). The Bruins goals were two just awesome plays by Pastrnak (including one goal Joey might want to have back, but the short was perfect), and then two garbage-time goals from some net-front chaos. And I don’t think the Kraken scored by taking any major risks. Darren is probably just saying that the high score could lead the Kraken players to want to *start* playing like that going forward… but eh, I’m not worried about that. I’m more worried they will lose to the Wild the same way as last time — a 4-1 score where they kinda hang in there most of the game but don’t get much going offensively. Although no shame in that — the Wild are really freaking good.
I like seeing those comments because I think it is a recognition that despite the lopsided final score, high danger chances were fairly even in the game. As fans we were entertained and you take that result on the second end of a back-to-back every day, but it’s good that the players are aware that they can’t get away with that level of defensive effort on the regular if we want to make the playoffs.
Pastrnak’s 2nd was bad defense not on Daccord. The only soft goal of the night. The best scorer in the game alone at the back post is a defensive lapse.
Wow, what a game to watch in person! To your point Darren, I didn’t think the defense played particularly poorly, but yea, coaches like Lambert get really grumpy when there are fun high-scoring games, even when they win. Joey got beat clean a few times and overplayed a few pucks. He and Grubauer have basically switched roles. Of all the things that have happened this year, Grubauer being a very close 2nd in the entire NHL in Sv% is the most insane. Plus he’s top 10 in GSAX. He looked completely cooked for 4 years! NHL goalies make no sense. Like you, happy to eat all the crow for all the loads of crap I’ve given him on here, especially if it means they’ll stop messing up your lawn.
I still think Stephenson is a lazy, loafing player most of the time. He just looks disinterested in making plays. He skates lazily around the O zone before dumping it into the corner which inevitably leads to a puck battle and a turnover, and then he plays the rest of his shift in the D zone. Even on the PP, Eberle made a nice pass to him behind the goal line and he just wasn’t paying attention and didn’t have his stick down, and it was cleared easily. Stephenson, Freddy and Tolvanen are the bottom 3 players in the entire NHL in xGf% at 5 on 5, right around 30%. Thirty!! Three-zero. I don’t care how many defensive draws you take, that is insanely horrible for half a seasons worth of data. Freddy actually skated fast maybe for the first time this season when he set up Kakko’s goal, so that was great to see, at least.
Shocked that given they scored 7 goals, Beniers didn’t have at least one of them. He had a great game. He had at least 3 grade A chances in the 2nd but couldn’t get it to go in.
Is it normal to announce a last second goal during the following period? Regardless I love how Chet did that.
Catton is becoming a DUDE. His two-way game is beyond anything I expected. He is relentless in forechecking and stick handles to open space with ease. He is way faster than I thought he would be, too. His second goal was obviously sick, and he also had a nasty set up for Wright in the second period that Swayman barely got a toe on. This is what it’s all about — this run won’t last like this, but the hope for real, talented young players is what I needed out of this season.
What a game! LFGK!!
LOL – Stephenson = lazy.
Max Skating Speed: Around 22.53 MPH, placing him in the 75th percentile among NHL skaters (as of late 2025 data).
Speed Bursts Over 20 MPH: He ranks in the 86th percentile, demonstrating his ability to generate quick bursts of speed.
Skating Distance: He covers significant ice, ranking in the 94th percentile for total skating distance.
I think the perception of Stephenson as a lazy skater owes to how slowly he usually moves his feet. The only times you really see his skates chopping at the ice is when he makes a sudden changes of direction, usually in transition. Otherwise, he just pushes and glides, but that takes force. His legs move more like those of an Olympic-style speed skater than a typical hockey player. If you watch him and the other players on the ice, you will notice that, relative to most other players, Stephenson skates at a greater velocity. That also means that his turns tend to take wide, sweeping arcs. The next time you watch a game (arena seating gives a better view) take note of how much ice he covers relative to the other players on that ice at any given moment. The dude flies.
It’s just his style. That doesn’t mean he’s lazy or loafing. Who are we really to say that? We have also certainly seen him skate aggressively. IMO it’s more that we should understand his style than call him lazy.
Max speed and speed bursts aren’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking more about his average speed (which is probably not tracked). Also, his distance is so high because he a) inexplicably plays the most minutes on this team pretty consistently (more minutes obviously = more distance), and b) spends most of his shifts trying to chase down the puck in the D zone. And it’s not like he glides so he can conserve his energy and burst down the ice to try to score; he saves his bursts to get to the red line to dump it in and change.
Again, the advanced stats speak for themselves. He is yet again the worst player at 5 on 5 in the NHL by a ton, despite many other players in the league who also take majority D zone faceoffs. The forechecking on that line is almost non-existent, and that could be a big part of it. Just pay attention to the effort that Catton/Mccann/Wright put in vs. the Stephenson line (especially without Tolvanen) in the O zone. Stevey and co sit back in the neutral zone passively, and give up zone entries way too easily. He seemed to be playing with more pace in the beginning of the season, but that seems to have vanished. I’m happy the team is winning obviously, but I can also be unhappy that the worst possession forward in the NHL is consistently getting 20 minutes per night, at the cost of other forwards that I’d much rather see play and develop.
“Is it normal to announce a last second goal during the following period?”
Answer: yes.
Sorry one more thing — I know we’ve all gotten used to it, but I am still amazed that Darren is able to write an excellent, detailed recap for nhl.com, and then stay up until 1am doing this excellent “Three Takeaways” article. All with another day job. We are lucky to have him!
Back to Back wins are nice but do not get too pumped. Both the Bruins and the Flames D really sucked. Our speed was able to take advantage of their lead feet.
que “game over” sound. I’ll bet you’re fun at parties.