Final Buzzer: Stormy Sea

RALEIGH, NC - Coming into Carolina, the Kraken knew what they were up against in a Hurricanes team that Dave Hakstol described as a "tight spaces, good checking team" that doesn't allow a lot of time and space to their opponents. Carolina lived up to the expectations and worked to a 3-2 final, sweeping the season series against the Kraken.
The 'Canes asserted their will in the first period and kept the Kraken attack quiet, all while adding two goals of their own. At that point, Will Borgen told ROOT Sports NW's Piper Shaw that the Kraken struggled to get through the neutral zone and gain any offensive possession.

And while Seattle was able to steady the ship a bit and eventually find the back of the net twice, they couldn't build enough of a sustainable attack to come back against the team with the sixth most points in the league.
"I think in the second we were playing with speed, we created some chances," Daniel Sprong said. And in the third I think we really pressed, we felt the game could be ours. And that's when we got (scoring chances)."
What stood out? Let's dig in.

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Brush up the Breakout

Going into this game, the Kraken wanted to be more effective on breakouts. Alexander Wennberg said the team needed to keep it simple and attack with speed. This remained a work in progress, especially in the first period. On the game as a whole, Seattle was successful on the breakout 59.2-percent of the time, but this was below season average of 79-percent (11th best in the NHL). And it was a failed breakout that led to the first Hurricanes goal. As Seattle set up the puck to move with speed up the ice, it was redirected off the intended target of Carson Soucy's stick and went directly to Andrei Svechnikov who had a mini-breakaway chance. He did not waste the chance and beat Philipp Grubauer to make it 1-0 Carolina.
"Their five-man pressure is outstanding and they were on it all the way through the majority of the game," Dave Hakstol said. "With their sustained five-man pressure in the first period was relentless on that. So we got caught with a couple of soft puck plays a little bit slow in a couple of decisions, and that's what that pressure can do to you."

Transitional Play

Once the Kraken did get out of their own zone, Carolina went to work making it difficult to get any farther north. Coming into this game, Carolina ranked first in the league in defensive zone denials (52.5%, all situations), and the impact was measurable. Seattle averages 6:48 of possession time in the offensive zone per game. Tonight, they finished with 4:45. With limited opportunities to get into the offensive zone, the Kraken finished the game with 36 shot attempts, 17 of which were on target. The previous season low was 20 shots on goal Nov. 8 versus Nashville.
The Kraken did find their way through the neutral zone a bit more as play went on. Off one successful transition, they added a goal for their efforts. Borgen won a key battle in the neutral zone and got the puck to Brandon Tanev. Next came the pass to Daniel Sprong on the right side and his shot from the top of the circle leaked through to the back of the net.

"Spronger's goal is by just shooting the puck," Hakstol said. "Which is something we didn't do enough of tonight. (It) gave us a chance in the last 10 minutes."
From the other bench, the Hurricanes were effective in transition throughout. The second goal came off a quick push by Carolina up the ice. That gave the home team the odd-man advantage and Jack Drury's pass got to Derek Stepan for the quick release score. The game-winner came off a penalty shot after Adam Larsson had to take a penalty to stop a Stefan Noesen breakaway.

Play in Net

The Carolina goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov brought a two-game shutout streak to tonight's matchup. Ryan Donato ended the rookie's bid for a third when he scored a goal for Seattle 11:26 into the third. It was the 26-year-old's second in as many games and came off a redirection of Carson Soucy's shot from the point.

At the other end of the ice, Philipp Grubauer put on a strong performance. The final score belied the effort the German goalie gave in a surprise start (Martin Jones had been announced as the starter at morning skate). Carolina sent 66 pucks Grubauer's way, including 39 on target (a new season high for Grubauer). He stopped all but three and turned away 1.47 more goals than he should have based on the shot quality he faced (per MoneyPuck.com). The performance was good enough to earn Grubauer his third quality start of the season. All three have come in his last five starts.
"Grubi was great tonight," Sprong said. "He made some big saves from start to finish and we have got to do a better job in front of him."

By the Numbers

Here's a look at our data-driven Instant Analysis from Sportlogiq (Click
HERE
for how to read this graphic):