LAK at SEA | Recap

Unlikely Kraken goal-scoring leader Jaden Schwartz had a front-row seat to perhaps the best open ice hit by a teammate all season and didn’t let it go to waste.

It would be Schwartz scoring three of his team’s four goals in Saturday night’s 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, the second coming after teammate Josh Mahura absolutely crushed opposing forward Warren Foegele just inside the blue line in the first period. The resulting odd-man rush the other way saw Matty Beniers feed Schwartz for his team-leading 15th of the season and a rare such marker by the Kraken following an open-ice hit, causing a turnover.

LAK@SEA: Schwartz scores goal against Darcy Kuemper

“We wouldn’t have scored if he didn’t do that,” Schwartz said of the hit by third-pairing defender Mahura, a surprisingly solid contributor this season after signing a one-year free agent deal last summer. “So, that was a great hit for us. He’s been doing a good job of that, of being hard to play against. And we need to continue to do that as a team.”

The Kraken stayed physically and mentally engaged throughout this Climate Pledge Arena homestand opener against one of the league’s more imposing teams. After Schwartz scored twice in a first period that saw the teams emerge even, Chandler Stephenson put the Kraken back in front early in the middle frame by redirecting an Oliver Bjorkstrand shot past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper.

That would be all the Kraken needed against the red-hot Kuemper, who’d allowed just four goals in his previous five starts combined. The Joey Daccord Show took over from there, with the Kraken goalie making 16 saves in a final frame in which the Kraken didn’t manage even a lone shot until Schwartz scored on an empty net with 70 seconds to play in regulation.

LAK@SEA: Schwartz has a hat trick against the Kings

That brought the hats raining down – including a large one thrown by mascot Buoy – in celebration of the fourth hat trick in Kraken history and the first at home since Jordan Eberle’s inaugural franchise feat back in November 2021. It was the third career hat-trick for Schwartz, who’s kicked his game into a higher level the past month in supplying both a scoring touch and physical engagement the Kraken have often lacked.

His goal on the first shot taken against Kuemper helped get the Kraken going against a goalie as dominant as any in the NHL over the past month.

“Yeah, it’s important,” Schwartz said of the strong start. “They’re a team that checks pretty hard. And they don’t give up a whole lot. So, we did a good job of being aggressive and pushing the pace.”

One of Daccord’s third period saves was off Mahura hit-victim Foegele, a longtime Kraken nemesis, on a shorthanded breakaway attempt in which the netminder waited out the forward’s deke attempt. Foegele, who scored five goals his first 10 games against the Kraken while with the Edmonton Oilers through last season, might have still been shaking off cobwebs from Mahura’s earlier hit by the time he found himself in alone on Daccord.

Mahura had coughed the puck up with “a brutal play to the middle that kind of bounced off our forward’s stick” right before he played wrecking ball to Foegele’s condemned building.

“I was just trying to get my gap back, and I cut through, and we just met in the middle of the ice there,” Mahura said. “So, it’s not necessarily something where you’re looking to catch a guy through the middle every night. But the situation was kind of there and it’s either that or get beat.”

Foegele dusting the ice shavings off his backside wasn’t the only Kings player nullified as the Kraken raced back up-ice. Hulking 6-foot-5, 220-pound Kings center Quinton Byfield took exception to the hit and got in Mahura’s face, continuing to jaw at him even as play continued to unfold at the opposite end.

A second Kings player soon got involved and tried to get at Mahura as the Kraken finally scored. Mahura admitted he was too preoccupied with would-be assailants to see Schwartz take the Beniers pass for his second goal of the game but added it was important for the Kraken to impose themselves physically.

“I think it’s kind of important for us every single night,” Mahura said. “I think when we’re playing our best hockey, we’re physical in the D-zone and on the forecheck in the O-zone. So, I think it’s kind of a thing for our team where when everybody’s doing it, we’re a good team.”

Good enough to outshoot the Kings 21-13 the first two periods. The Kraken had a 15-8 advantage in the opening frame but only came out of that period tied just 2-2 due to some bad breaks.

Beniers got penalized for high-sticking six minutes in, even though replays showed it was a Los Angeles player’s stick that made contact with the head of Kings’ forward Vladislav Garikov. Adrian Kempe promptly scored on the ensuing power play to even the score 1-1 despite the Kraken having dominated to that point.

And that’s why Kraken coach Dan Bylsma felt the Mahura hit on Foegele barely a minute later was so timely.

“They scored the goal and…the game’s a little bit in flux – it’s that kind of feeling,” Bylsma said of the tying Kings power play marker. “And the hit – I don’t want to say it woke us up because we were in the match before that, but the hit was a huge play. A statement in the middle of the ice. And we were able to answer back.”

And even though Jordan Spence tied it 2-2 late in the period when Daccord’s skate got caught up with Brandon Montour’s ahead of an incoming shot, the Kraken remained engaged from there. Stephenson regained the Kraken lead just 1:37 into a middle period Bylsma termed “our best second period of the year,” and Daccord did the rest of the final frame when the Kings poured it on early and often.

LAK@SEA: Stephenson scores goal against Darcy Kuemper

The Kraken were so stymied at registering even a single shot that even Schwartz missed his first attempt at the hat trick by hitting the post with the net empty and Kuemper pulled for the extra attacker. But Schwartz didn’t miss his second chance, rewarding the Kraken for an all-around effort from Mahura’s early hit to other shutdown plays that followed.

“I thought we were just taking away their time and space a little bit more instead of backing in and giving them too much time,” Schwartz said. “I thought we were on them. They’ve got a lot of good players who can make plays. So, you’ve got to be on them, check them hard and be aggressive.”