Kraken Take It To The Wire For OT Win

Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn said he’d already been feeling pretty good about his team’s Wednesday night effort before he literally took matters into his own hands to ensure it didn’t head completely south on them.

It would be Dunn keeping the puck in the offensive zone with a tremendous play along the side boards ahead of a Matty Beniers tying goal with 25 seconds to go in regulation time. And then Dunn once again, sealing his own three-point night with a one-timed, power play slap shot in overtime to deliver a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings and snap his team’s six-game losing streak.

“We had a lot of chances, and I didn’t really see a lot of frustration with our team right until the end,” Dunn said in a euphoric postgame dressing room as the Kraken and their fathers and mentors celebrated together in the first part of a two-game “Dad’s trip” that culminates in Utah on Friday night. “I thought that the guys stayed disciplined and trusted in the process all the way to the end. Guys stuck to it when they weren’t necessarily getting results on the scoreboard for us. But I think that, overall, we can all feel pretty good about that game.”

The Kraken may have been feeling good, but things certainly weren’t looking great as the game ticked down. Ryker Evans had taken a four-minute, double-minor for high sticking Corey Perry in the closing minutes, leading to a Kevin Fiala goal when he momentarily got in alone on Joey Daccord.

Of the team’s five consecutive regulation losses during this 0-5-1 winless stretch, they’d dropped their prior two games at Climate Pledge Arena after being tied in the final period. They had finally managed to score a Jared McCann second period power play goal on journeyman Kings netminder Anton Forsberg, who’d previously blanked them for 143 consecutive minutes and 69 shots dating back two years to when he used to play for the Ottawa Senators.

But then Alex Laferriere tied it up five minutes later on a shorthanded breakaway goal. That meant that to avoid defeat, the Kraken would have to score at least once more against Forsberg, who’d recorded shutouts against them each of the past two seasons.

Forsberg proceeded to blank them again for most of the next two periods despite the Kraken peppering him with 16 shots in the middle frame alone. One additional rebound shot was indeed poked into the Kings’ net on a goalmouth scramble that period, but the referee waved it off saying he’d blown the whistle after losing sight of the puck.

Things looked dire indeed when Fiala scored, but the Kraken kept pouring it on late with Daccord pulled for the extra attacker. Then, in a case of more bad luck finally leading to something good, Fiala stuck out his leg and sent McCann toppling over in a painful heap that led to a crucial Kraken power play.

McCann limped off the ice in obvious pain and did not return. The Kraken had no update on his condition postgame.

But with Daccord still pulled for a 6-on-4 advantage, Dunn kept the puck in the Los Angeles zone as it was fired along the boards in a clearance attempt. Dunn sent a pass to Eeli Tolvanen, who threw it net front to Beniers to redirect it home.

“Our mindset was the same entering the final minute because we were in the same position we’ve been in a couple of times,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said. “And I thought our guys did a great job of executing when we needed to execute, first on the 6-on-5, and then after the penalty on the 6-on-4. We’ve had some losses here, some tough losses at home where we played well. We were playing well here again tonight and I’m just happy for our players that they finally got rewarded for it.”

The Kraken certainly got rewarded in overtime, when the Kings took their seventh minor penalty of the contest. Not long after, with the Kraken showing strong puck movement, Tolvanen sent Dunn a pass just atop the right circle that he blasted home for his team’s third power play marker of the night.

“I mean, he made some key plays and obviously he factored in offensively big-time,” Lambert said of Dunn. “But aside of that, I thought he was really good. I thought his gaps were great and I thought his defensive play was great.”

Lambert was proud of the resilience the Kraken showed in the face of all that had gone against them with “a mistake here, a mistake there” in recent games.

Kraken goalie Daccord, who stopped 23 of 25 shots for the win, agreed the resulting victory was definitely earned.

“We’ve competed so hard these last couple of weeks and it just hasn’t gone our way,” he said. “So, to get a bounce there at the end – the guys made a nice play on the 6-on-4 to get it tied up and then the power play converted again. So, that was huge.”

Dunn said he was lucky the puck “got glued to the wall” on the last-minute clearance attempt in regulation, so his keeping it in the zone ahead of the tying Beniers goal wasn’t as difficult as it looked. Not as difficult as finding victory has been for his team despite some stronger efforts of late.

“It’s just important right now to just stick with it all the way to the end,” Dunn said. “I think with wins and losses the way we’ve had the games for us, it’s always a one-goal or two-goal game. So, anything can really happen going both ways. So, it’s important for us to stick with it right to the end.”