Final Buzzer: Stars-Crossed

The Kraken have work to do as the remaining 15 games of the regular season unfold beginning Thursday night in San Jose. A rare two-game back-to-back set with Central Division leader Dallas yielded just one standings point with the Kraken falling, 5-2, Monday night at Climate Pledge Arena.
Three power-play goals, one in each period, powered the Stars' victory. The Monday goalie duel clearly went to Dallas' Jake Oettinger, who made 26 saves for his 29th win. Only two NHL goalies have more victories.
"We made a mistake on the first one [power play goal] and that opened up the inside on the rebound," said Hakstol, reviewing a rough outing by Kraken penalty killers who had previously snuffed out 31 of the last 32 opposing power plays before Monday. "They found different holes inside you know, the last one [making it 5-2 early third period] goes off both of our sticks ... But bottom line, we've got to get the job done."

After 67 games played by the top five teams in the Pacific Division, the Kraken are in third place with 81 points, four behind Los Angeles and one ahead of Edmonton (the Oilers come to town for a Saturday matinee this week. Then an extended four-game Central road trip is next, all against teams with playoff aspirations: Dallas again, Nashville twice in three days, and Minnesota before a home game with Anaheim finishing the month. Faith in the team and each other will be paramount for players and coaches alike.
"This team has done a great job all year, believing until the end [of games] and most nights we've been crawling back," said a disappointed alternate captain Adam Larsson. "But tonight I thought they were the better team."
"This is a disappointing loss tonight, especially those swings of momentum," said Hakstol. "Those eat away at you. "We have a day off tomorrow. We've been a group that's been able to turn the page, go back to the next job at hand."
"You don't change the things that you do. The strength of this group is exactly that - it's the group ... We've got to make sure we're able to turn that page quickly, have a short memory, then have one good practice Wednesday before we go on the road for a really important game in San Jose."

Men in the Middle

After Dallas notched a third goal early in the middle period, the remainder of the frame was tightly contested with both goaltenders making timely saves, including a Martin Jones stop on Dallas star center Roope Hintz on a breakaway, preventing Hintz's 33rd of the season and what would have been 4-1 lead.
That third Dallas score came again on the power play when former Star Jamie Oleksiak went off for tripping. This time the Stars cashed in 23 seconds into man-advantage when 38-year-old Joe Pavelski redirected a Jamie Benn shot to make it 3-1.
Seattle racked up nine Grade-A scoring chances in the first 40 minutes but 6-foot-5 Stars goalie Jake Oettinger proved his worth in his second game against the Kraken in three nights. He did get beat by a Vince Dunn left-point shot that Eeli Tolvanen tipped in through a crowd at net front to make 3-2 late in the period.

Problem was, another young Dallas player, 19-year-old Wyatt Johnston answered 14 seconds later l with a break on net and an agile move to beat Martin Jones, making it 4-2.

Shifting Momentum

Kraken players regularly talk about putting a good shift to set up teammates who jump on the ice for the next shift. Whether the previous shift results in a goal or even scoring chances, the concept is to leave the game situation in a better place.
With Seattle trailing 2-0 with seven-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first period, the Matty Beniers line and Kraken third D-pair did just that: Beniers' hustle and elite skating ability led to three scoring chances (one a gorgeous three-pass sequence among four Kraken that just missed). Jaycob Megna, in just his third game for the Kraken since being acquired more than a month ago, made a great play to keep the puck in the zone and took a hard shot himself. There was lots of energy and the crowd noisily appreciated the effort.
Donato and linemates Daniel Sprong and Brandon Tanev neutralized Dallas' offensive attack while generating some offensive zone possession time too.
Those two shifts effectively kept Dallas on the run. When the Yanni Gourde line and Vince Dunn-Adam Larsson D-pair took the ice, the shifting momentum paid off with a Gourde goal to halve the Stars. AHL call-up Jesper Froden started a scoring play by winning a puck battle near-net and sending it back to Dunn at the point.

Chasing the Game (Again)

For the third straight game of the completed four-game homestand, the visitors scored first. In fact, Dallas scored twice in the first six minutes. Veteran forward Evgenii Dadonov scored his third goal and seventh point in eight games with the Stars since being acquired from Montreal at the trade deadline.
Dadonov tallied when rookie Wyatt Johnston sent a puck net-ward and it bounced off Dadonov's upper arm and past starting goalie Martin Jones three-plus minutes into the contest. Johnston was the beneficiary of a blocked shot by Adam Larsson with the puck hitting the Kraken defenseman's left skate blade and right to 2022 first-round draft pick Johnston.
Two minutes later, Yanni Gourde was whistled off for slashing on Dadonov. Within nine seconds, Dallas busted out a power play goal from veteran Jamie Benn. It was Benn's 28th goal of the season and 11th on the Stars' potent power play.

Dunn Good (Again)

With assists on the first two Kraken goals (one secondary, one primary), Kraken leading scorer Vince Dunn extended his point streak to 10 games. He has 12 goals and 43 assists on the year for 55 points.
Dunn now has 15 points in the last 10 games with three goals and 12 assists. The point streak is the longest of the season by any NHL defenseman. His 10-game stretch is a franchise record for consecutive games played with a point. It also makes him the fourth defenseman this season to have a point in 10 or more consecutive games.