Kraken Lose Shutout, Game Late

After a scoreless first two periods, Kraken rookie Ryker Evans broke the tie with his first NHL goal on a shot that portends many more of those scoring moments. The goal, tallied in the eighth minute of the third period, looked like it might hold up for the Kraken’s first-ever 1-0 victory. But Arizona leading scorer Clayton Keller was right place/right time net-front to rap in his 29th goal of the season, this one send the game into overtime.

The Coyotes endured an earlier disqualification of what the players and home crowd thought was the tying marker, but the NHL’s Situation Room in Toronto ruled it a kicked goal. Arizona ultimately got its second goal when rookie Dylan Guenther scored on a breakaway in overtime on a pass from fellow rookie Logan Cooley. Joey Daccord last nearly 59 minutes – a dream shutout in his college stomping grounds – then unraveled in the next five minutes of play.

Seattle is now 28-28-13 with the winless streak extending to seven games. It is the ninth time in the last 12 games that the Kraken have scored two goals or less.

“We had great energy coming into the game and we played that way throughout the vast majority of the game,” said Dave Hakstol post-game before the flight back to Seattle. “Then we were our own worst enemy on on the tying goal. “That's a three-on-three ... one that certainly we'd like to play differently.”

Hakstol wasn’t happy with the Kraken’s shot selection in overtime: “We are t pressing a little bit maybe in those situations. We've got we've got to have better shot selection in order to hold the puck for good opportunities.”

The Kraken power play was unproductive in three tries Friday. Hakstol said the units looked “lethargic” in the second period: “We just we didn't get enough done on it ... sometimes that can really drop your momentum. It didn't do that tonight.

“Bottom line, we're in a position, excellent position to win this hockey game and no question that we worked hard to put ourselves in that position. That’s a game that we should have been able to close out.”

Lots of Kraken Faithful

Seattle fans showed up in impressive numbers at Friday’s road game in Tempe, a half-hour drive from the Mariners spring training complex in nearby Peoria, AZ. They didn’t see a single goal in the first two periods, then witnessed franchise history when rookie defenseman Ryker Evans scored his first NHL goal to give the Kraken a 1-0 seven-plus minutes in the third period.

Jaden Schwartz started the play, showing what the Kraken were missing from the veteran foreward on the recent homestand, moving the puck cross-ice behind the goal line to Jared McCann. With Arizona defenders likely worrying over McCann’s shoot-first mentality, McCann sent a cross-ice pass to Evans, who wristed a rising beauty of a goal past Coyotes goalie Karel Vejmelka. McCann and all of Evans’ on-ice teammates mobbied the rookie D-man, who himself was all smiles and clearly pumped.

“It was pretty cool,” said Evans, clearly lower-key with the disappointing the final score. “Jared’s been awesome with helping my confidence. It was awesome to see how happy he was.”

Evans is the sixth Kraken player to score his first NHL goal in a Seattle uniform. The others are Tye Kartye, Will Borgen, Matty Beniers, Shane Wright and Kole Lind.

There will be plenty more goals from Evans in seasons ahead, along with power-play quarterback assists and thousands of zone exits with speed. Dave Hakstol has been candid about some of Evans’ miscues on the defensive end but overall has praised the

2021 second-rounder’s NHL performances this season. Hakstol is particularly fond of Evans’ skating and stickhandling skills getting him out of trouble and loves both Evans’ level of competitiveness and confidence, especially as a rookie who just turned 22.

Powering Down

The Kraken were scoreless in three power plays during the first two periods and didn’t generate many scoring chances. In fact, Arizona worked up a pair of shorthanded opportunities in the middle period that could be judged

The better chances testing Arizona goalie Karel Vejmelka were coming from the Matty Beniers line (Jordan Eberle and Eeli Tolvanen on the wings) and Yanni Gourde line (with Brandon Tanev and Oliver Bjorkstrand, the latter reunited with Gourde). Beniers and Eberle both hit posts while Andre Burakovsky hit a crossbar.

Forty Minutes of Blanks and Clangs

The visiting Kraken and home-squad Arizona Coyotes nearly matched shots on goal in Friday’s first period at NCAA Division I Arizona State’s home arena, but only had clanged goal posts to show for it (two for Seattle, one for Arizona). The Coyotes logged 11 shots on goal and Seattle chipped in 10 during a back-and-forth stanza.

Both goaltenders, Joey Daccord and Arizona’s backup goaltender, Karel Vejmelka, were up to the task (and probably tapping those sturdy goal posts to keep the puck luck going). They dueled zeroes through the first 40 minutes with Vejmelka facing four Grade-A chances compared to three for Daccord. The second period ended with 20 total shots on goal for Seattle and 18 from the home team.

For the Kraken goaltender, it was a solid night overall and particularly encouraging for Daccord given his outing last Monday in which he gave three goals to Buffalo on longer-range shots in the first six minutes of the game, then was pulled by coach Dave Hakstol.

Doing the Playoff Math

The Kraken's 28-28-13 record moves them to 69 standings points, 17 behind Western Conference wild-card leader Nashville and down 12 to second-position Vegas. With 13 games and a maximum 26 points left to accumulate, plus challenger St. Louis eight points ahead of Seattle, the playoff math is not an equation for unbridled optimism.