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Three Takeaways – Goals by Beniers and Catton, strong outing by Daccord help Kraken beat Devils

Darren Brown

Joey Daccord 122925

In a tough-sledding, tight-checking game, the Seattle Kraken broke through to muster just enough offense and earn a MUCH-needed 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.

Seattle got through the first six minutes without giving up a goal for the first time in 10 games, but the Devils broke through on a power play at 8:11 to make it 1-0. So, still an early goal against, but not as early as they’ve been giving up recently. The Kraken overcame the goal against and broke a 1-1 tie with two goals in quick succession in the third period, then held on in the closing minutes to rebound from what coach Lane Lambert had called a “terrible” game Friday against the Anaheim Ducks.

Ryker Evans, Matty Beniers, Berkly Catton, and Jordan Eberle scored the goals, and Joey Daccord looked more like himself than in his previous outing.

Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken win over the Devils.

Takeaway 1: Two quick third-period goals

At practice on Saturday, Lane Lambert talked vaguely about Beniers spending time this season working behind the scenes on his offensive game with skills coach Justin Rai and assistant coach Chris Taylor. He called it “pretty intriguing stuff,” but declined to elaborate further.

Beniers, playing his 300th game, made an outstanding offensive play Sunday to break the tie, taking a low feed from Jordan Eberle, dragging the puck across the slot, and chipping a perfectly placed backhander under the bar at 7:04 of the third.

“300 games for Matty, and he scored an all-world goal,” Lambert said. “He had great patience to hold onto it and then keep holding onto it while their goalie went down. So, really good job by him.”

So maybe that’s the kind of thing he’s been working on with Rai and Taylor?

“Matty, nasty goal, outrageous celly. I absolutely loved it,” Daccord said. “I loved every second of it.”

Just 18 seconds later, the Kraken added an insurance goal to make it 3-1—a goal that proved critical, as Jack Hughes pulled New Jersey back within one with a power-play goal less than a minute after that.

The insurance marker was credited to Berkly Catton, though it required a fortunate bounce to get over the line. An Eeli Tolvanen shot from the left hashmarks didn’t make it through to Jacob Markstrom, instead dropping onto Chandler Stephenson’s stick. Stephenson made an elite no-look pass across the crease to his tenant, who had an open net. Catton actually missed with his shot, but the puck hit the outside of the goal, popped up, struck his body, and dropped in behind Markstrom.

“I mean, I went what? 27 games without a goal? That’s a long time,” Catton said. “It’s nice that they’re kind of starting to go in here… I have no clue how it went in. I had it, I shot it on net, and it hit the side of the net, and then I don’t know what happened after that.”

Takeaway 2: Joey found his mojo

After Joey’s last start—a 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday—Lambert indicated he thought there were some goals the Kraken would have liked their goalie to stop. Philipp Grubauer then started the next two games.

Daccord returned to the net Sunday and looked like his old self, stopping 27 of 29 shots and improving to a .901 save percentage and 2.89 goals-against average on the season.

His biggest saves came during a frantic sequence on a Devils power play midway through the second period, a few minutes after Evans had tied the game.

Daccord appeared down and out as the puck found its way to Nico Hischier in the crease with an open net. While Hischier tried to corral a bouncing puck amid a bevy of bodies, Daccord came sprawling back to the right post in a full split, denying Hischier’s first whack on the goal line before rejecting a follow-up attempt by Jesper Bratt and barely keeping the puck out.

“I just turned around with full splits and hoped it didn’t go in,” Daccord said. “And I felt it hit my pad. I don’t know if it was a stick or the puck, but I thought I felt the puck hit my pad, and I was just hoping my pad wasn’t in the net. They didn’t review it or challenge it, and no one said anything.”

Jaden Schwartz followed up that save with a goal-saving shot block seconds after that sequence, helping Seattle earn a critical penalty kill at a key moment in the game.

As Grubauer has experienced a renaissance this season, Daccord hasn’t always looked at his best. It was good to see him deliver a properly solid outing Sunday and backstop his team to a much-needed win.

“He played great,” Lambert said. “I thought we defended pretty well 5-on-5, for the most part. There was some scrambling stuff around the net, but when we needed him to make a save—and we did—he made it. So, I’m very happy for him.”

In classic Joey fashion, he even took a shot at the empty net late in the game, only to have his attempt blocked by Brett Pesce.

Takeaway 3: Huge win

After the horrendous performance against the Ducks on Friday, there was a real sense of doom and gloom, with Seattle having fallen out of the playoff bubble and four points back of Anaheim. While the Kraken have now played one more game than both San Jose and Los Angeles, Sunday’s win pulled them level on points with both teams and back within two points of the Ducks, who still hold the all-important third spot in the Pacific Division.

The last 10 games haven’t been great for the Kraken, but they remain right in the thick of the playoff race. With the Olympic break just five games away, now would be an incredible time to get back on a winning streak.

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.

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