Kraken Extend Streak In Comeback OT Loss

Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn stood in the losing locker room after this one, refusing to hang his head and insisting none of his teammates were going to either.

Dunn’s team had just gone toe-to-toe with the No. 3 squad in the NHL, overcoming a two-goal, third period deficit ahead of taking a 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild on a Thursday night in which the home side took a good 35 minutes to kick things into gear. But once they found that gear, the Kraken – as they had against the No. 1 ranked Colorado Avalanche a few weeks prior – showed they can compete with the best and even had an overtime chance off an odd-man rush to seal the deal ahead of giving up the winner the other way.

“It was a big comeback to push for the point,” Dunn said. “And I think, just the atmosphere in here after the game, you can see a lot of heads not hanging, which is nice to see. Obviously, the result didn’t go our way. But I think overall, the way we’re playing right now, we just need to kind of roll with our confidence and put this one behind us.

“We competed tonight,” he added. “It was obviously not perfect throughout the game. There was a lot of mistakes. But you learn from those and you move on.”

And while Dunn’s head coach insisted afterwards he doesn’t believe in “measuring stick games” the Kraken measured up fairly well in this one considering they played a pretty poor first period and needed half of the second frame to get any type of offense going against the league’s No. 2 defensive unit.

But they eventually got it going and the salvaged point, as Dunn mentioned, was huge in that it allowed the Kraken to remain in third place in the Pacific Division – just two points behind leaders Vegas and Edmonton – as they now embark on a five-city road trip. They extended their points streak to 10 games in the process, going 8-0-2 that stretch to transform a season hinging on the brink.

Mats Zuccarello got the overtime winner for Minnesota, converting a Kirill Kaprizov pass off a 2-on-1 break after the Kraken had been foiled just moments prior on their own odd-man rush. That foiled an outstanding night for Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer, who’d made several huge stops in both overtime and the third period to keep things tied, as well as prior to that frame to give his team the shot at a comeback.

The Kraken had spent the past week filling opposition nets with pucks but waited until the final 17 minutes to score their first goal of this game. By that point, they’d been trailing 2-0 since a pair of 42-foot wrist shot goals by Ryan Hartman and Brock Faber in the first period silenced the home crowd.

“The first period was awful, and our execution was probably the biggest part of that,” Dunn said. “It’s just tough when you’re chasing the game a little bit to start the game. So, we kind of set ourselves up for the second period to come out and play the right way and I thought as the game went on, we got a lot better.

“And I thought it was a pretty competitive game both ways. A lot of chances both ways."

Grubauer kept things close from there, stopping 31 of 34 shots on the night to give his team a chance to get back in it.

Adam Larsson then got the Kraken on the board three minutes into the final period with a slap shot goal from the right circle after Dunn had rung one off the post on a prior blast seconds earlier. And the Kraken weren’t done yet.

The Wild ran into penalty trouble not long after and the Kraken capitalized on the power play with Matty Beniers banging home a net front rebound off a Jared McCann shot that lifted the home side into a 2-2 tie and sent the Climate Pledge Arena crowd into a frenzy.

“I think we just got faster,” Beniers said. “We got more pressure on their breakouts, their neutral zone. And then, when we got pucks back, we went fast. We threw it up three (attackers) high, got in behind them and we started to get a little bit more first touches on pucks, offensive rushes, chances like that.”

Minnesota seemed vulnerable to that speed at times, somewhat weary in playing the finale of a two-week road trip for them. But by game’s end, both teams had found their legs and engaged in an up-tempo track meet of entertaining hockey not quite typical of the tight-scoring game it turned out to be.

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert found the game a little too entertaining at times, especially in the overtime when his team turned the puck over once too often and paid for it on Zuccarello’s winning goal.

“It was a pretty good hockey game overall if you were up in the stands,” Lambert said. “I don’t know if I loved it overall standing behind the bench watching.”

Lambert felt his team had been far too slow in the opening period. Then, after making up for it the second half of the middle frame and in the third period, he felt they played a poor overtime. The Wild dominated possession most of the extra session and then the Kraken turned the puck back over on two quality rush chances they did get.

“Give our guys credit,” Lambert said. “They did a great job to come back. It’s a huge point for us. But again, the disappointment for me is that the game started slow for us. And we can’t do that.”

Lambert wants the punishing forecheck the Kraken have employed throughout this points streak to be there from the opening puck drop.

“You have to play 60 minutes,” he said.

Lambert saw the forecheck, as Beniers mentioned, resurface the latter part of the second period and then in the third, with the fourth liners banging around and Jacob Melanson getting the net front screen in front of Larsson’s goal.

“We started taking care of the puck more,” Lambert said. “We started attacking more.”

And defenseman Dunn, who wound up with assists on both Kraken goals, agreed his team will need to remember how it played the latter part of this one once it did hasten the pace against what’s been touted as a formidable Stanley Cup contender.

“They’re obviously a very high-paced team,” Dunn said of the Wild. “Their defense is always up and by no means was it a slow game. It was pretty physical, but also very skilled. They make a lot of plays. So, overall, the game was maybe a little similar to what we’ve seen. I just don’t think the results were the same. I think both goalies played great. And yeah, sometimes it goes like that.”