HELSINKI, Finland – Another inch or so might have changed the fate of Mackie Samoskevich and his Kraken teammates on this second and final night of NHL Global Series play.
Already down a goal Saturday night to the Carolina Hurricanes and struggling to get any real shots on net, the Kraken fired two off in quick succession and then saw Samoskevich rifle one off the crossbar with the goalie beaten clean. Instead of a tie game, the Kraken in taking a second straight defeat to the Hurricanes at Veikkaus Arena, this one by a 5-1 score, would surrender a go-ahead goal late in the period on a night penalties effectively did them in.
Jackson Blake had already opened the scoring on the power play not long after the Kraken had fended off a 5-on-3 disadvantage for 1:25. Mark Jankowski would get the go-ahead marker on a one-timed blast not long after Samoskevich hit the crossbar and then Andrei Svechnikov would put things away with power play markers in the second period.
The Kraken head home early Sunday from their weeklong sojourn to Finland sporting a record of 9-8-1 and having dropped three in a row.
Matty Beniers had given the Kraken one last glimmer of hope when he slapped one in from 33 feet out in the left faceoff circle to cut the margin to 3-1 just six minutes into the middle frame. Bobby McMann had gotten it all started with a nice backhand pass from behind the net to Jordan Eberle, who then teed it up for Beniers.
But while that gave Kraken fans who’d made the trip overseas a chance to erupt in celebration in a game still technically within reach, the cheers were short-lived. Brandon Montour was penalized soon after for slashing and Svechnikov would again make it a three-goal affair and chase Kraken netminder Joey Daccord from the game in favor of Philipp Grubauer.
The Hurricanes went 3-for-5 on the power play overall, scoring twice with Berkly Catton in the box.
In fact, other than the early penalty kill when down two men, with Ryan Lindgren sent off for interference right after Montour took a high-sticking call, the Hurricanes were perfect on all ensuing power plays.
Lindgren was back in the Kraken lineup for the first time since an early October lower body injury, while forward Jagger Firkus, called up from AHL Coachella Valley last week, made his NHL debut on a line with Chandler Stephenson and Freddy Gaudreau. Firkus would see 11:38 of ice time and was out there for the go-ahead Jankowski goal as the No. 2 overall pick from 2022 joins Shane Wright, Jani Nyman and Nikke Koko as others to play for the Kraken from that draft class.
Firkus is the 38th player to make their NHL debut in a game played outside of North America also the first Kraken player to do so.
