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Three Takeaways – Matty Beniers gets the overtime winner for Kraken against Flames

Darren Brown

Brandon Montour Matty Beniers 041326

For a game in early November, coming away with two points felt oddly important for the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday against the Calgary Flames.

With their schedule altered for the upcoming Finland trip—and even some extra extra days between games for some reason—getting spanked Friday in Calgary and then having four days to stew over it left a long-lasting bad taste.

Looking ahead, Seattle now has two more practice days, a game Saturday against the New York Rangers, then just the two Global Series games against the Carolina Hurricanes in Finland next Thursday and Saturday, before four more days off. So things are really spread out right now, making points feel extra precious.

“I mean, I think you could kind of see it with our celebration there in OT. [We were] pretty ecstatic,” Berkly Catton said. “I think we really wanted that one and maybe didn’t come out the way we wanted, but finished the way we wanted. And that’s what’s important.”

This one took overtime heroics from Matty Beniers, a desperately needed solid performance from Joey Daccord, and some good, old-fashioned stick-to-itiveness. But the Kraken ultimately prevailed and earned the critical standings points.

Here are Three Takeaways from a 2-1 overtime Kraken win over the Flames.

Takeaway 1: Feel the rhythm

I asked Lane Lambert on Wednesday morning if he likes having games spaced out the way they are right now, so his team can recuperate and work on things in practice, or if he prefers to play more regularly to keep the team in a rhythm. He said unequivocally that he prefers to stay in a rhythm, and we saw why Wednesday.

Seattle looked flat as a pancake in the first 15 minutes of the game and—thanks to a controversial goal—came out of the opening frame trailing 1-0.

That goal was controversial because although a clearing attempt by Seattle traveled the length of the ice, it hit a Kraken player on the bench, which should have stopped play in the neutral zone. Instead, the officials still ruled it icing, which meant the face-off would be in the Kraken end.

Of course, soon after that face-off, Yegor Sharangovich tipped a Zach Whitecloud shot through Joey Daccord’s wickets at 12:45, and Seattle was again chasing the game early, just like it did at the Saddledome on Friday.

The Kraken continued to sleepwalk through the opening frame until Berkly Catton appeared to score to tie the game 1-1 with about five minutes left in the first period. Calgary coach Ryan Huska successfully challenged for offside, though—Catton was a few inches over the line before the puck—and the goal was overturned.

Usually, those kinds of calls kill momentum, but in this case, it seemed to be just what the Kraken needed to give them a jolt and start believing they could generate offensive opportunities.

Still, things didn’t come easy at any point in this game for Seattle, but from that moment on, the Kraken did seem to find themselves and shake off whatever rust they were feeling from the oddly long layoff.

“With the time off, I thought it took us a little bit of time to get our legs,” Lambert said. “I was concerned about that potentially, but I think once we got our legs going, we started to have a push, and we were better from there. I thought Joey Daccord played very well for us tonight, made huge saves when he had to, and so that helped us out a lot as well. But certainly, an even, pretty even hockey game if you look at the chances.”

Catton scored a “real” goal at 13:09 of the second off a rush with roommate and new linemate Mackie Samoskevich. Samoskevich found Catton in stride at the blue line, and Catton flew into the zone and zipped a snap shot over Dustin Wolf’s glove to tie the game.

That was the last goal of the game until Brandon Montour intercepted a pass less than a minute into overtime and sprung Beniers on one of the clearest-cut breakaways you’ll ever see.

“That was probably the longest breakaway I’ve ever had,” Beniers said “There was a lot of ice. [Montour] made a great play to intercept that and then give it to me.”

Takeaway 2: An important win for Joey

Kraken goaltending has shown some blemishes, with both Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer having rough nights in the last few weeks.

Daccord, especially, needed a solid game both for his own confidence and the confidence of the team, and he delivered Wednesday with a 25-save performance, one of his best statistical outings in 2026-27.

But it wasn’t just the volume; it was also the quality in the third period, when Daccord stopped a full-on breakaway by Joel Farabee and a partial breakaway off a scary-looking speed play by Simon Nemec. Daccord handled both opportunities in an unruffled manner.

“It felt really good to make big saves,” Daccord said. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve been pushing myself to come up with the big save when the team needs it, and to come up with two in the third period felt really good. Yeah, I was fired up. I was celebrating a little bit internally because I just I think it’s really important, especially when the team’s playing well.”

He did so despite Seattle’s old nemesis, Martin Pospisil, running him over twice during the course of the game. On the first one, Vince Dunn—who has been injured by Pospisil in the past and desperately wants to make him “answer the bell”—jumped right in and gave Pospisil a few good shots. And when Pospisil did it a second time, leaving Daccord down for a moment, Brandon Montour skated down from the blue line and flattened Pospisil.

“It’s great to feel the support from the guys like that and know they have your back,” Daccord said. “Obviously, just got run into, and yeah, wasn’t really expecting to get collided into, so I wasn’t exactly bracing for a hit. Maybe I should start bracing for hits. Next thing I know, I was on the ice, and I saw ‘Monty’ go after him… That’s always a good feeling as a goalie to know that your team has your back like that and will stand up for you. So I really appreciate ‘Monty’ there.”

Daccord was unfazed by Pospisil’s shenanigans and ultimately got the last laugh.

That Pospisil guy sucks.

Takeaway 3: Matthew Wood debut

In this game, we got our first look at Matthew Wood in game action after he was acquired from the Nashville Predators in a trade for Shane Wright on Sunday. Interestingly, Lambert used him quite a lot. Wood finished the night with 17:35 of ice time, which was fourth-most among forwards behind only Matty Beniers, Bobby McMann, and Chandler Stephenson.

I thought it was a rocky start for Wood, who turned the puck over on one of his first touches in deep sea blue. But like the rest of the team, he settled in as the game went along.

Although I can see what people have said about his agility—his straight-line speed is fine, but when he needs to turn on a dime, it does take him longer than other players—there were a few flashes of brilliance, with shifty puck plays and at least two deft little passes that created scoring chances.

He also came within inches of scoring his first goal as a Kraken in the third period off a rush with Chandler Stephenson. As Stephenson slowed to pull defenders toward him, Wood continued toward the net and got behind Zayne Parekh. Wood then went backhand-to-forehand and chipped a shot that hit Wolf’s mask and then the crossbar.

“I thought Matthew did a good job for his first game,” Lambert said. “There’s a couple things that he’s still getting his footing, you could tell that early on, but I thought as he got more comfortable, you can see the things that he can do with the puck. [He had a] great move in the third period… [when his shot went] off the crossbar. That’s kind of what we’re looking for out of him, for sure.”

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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