Cannon Blast 

COLUMBUS, OH - It wasn’t always pretty or how the Kraken would have scripted it up, but they battled back from three one-goal deficits to earn a 7-4 win and set a new franchise record with nine straight wins. The team now has points in 13 straight games.

Jared McCann and Yanni Gourde each earned their 300th NHL point and as the team lost the services of Andre Burakovsky and Matty Beniers before the game was over, McCann along with Justin Schultz, Brian Dumoulin, and Oliver Bjorkstrand each picked up a bit of the extra workload and earned multi-point nights.

“Our team showed a lot of resiliency today,” Dave Hakstol said. “We have a lot of guys that are feeling less than one hundred percent, it's that time of year, but guys did what they could…we weren’t at our best, we weren't sharp especially to start the hockey game. But, we showed some very good resiliency to dig out and build a lead, and then, as the bench got a little bit short, we simplified our game and were able to build a lead and then hold it.

“Not for a second was there any type of panic or wasted emotion on the bench. I think our guys realized that we really weren't at our best, and (they) just tried to simplify and do some things that would give us a chance to get going and give her give ourselves success. And that means a lot at this time of year.”

Let’s dig in.

Jackets Jump

Of the two teams, Columbus had the better start in this one. Through the first ten minutes, the Blue Jackets had 18 shot attempts – 11 of which Seattle blocked – to the Kraken’s five. It took Seattle 5:24 to get their first shot on goal and that came after two minutes on the penalty kill and an Ivan Provorov goal that made it 1-0 Blue Jackets.

Stretching it Out

The Kraken took some time to get their footing, but they found the answer 11:37 into the game. Proving once again that they are a team completing the second most stretch passes in the league, Adam Larsson sent a puck deep down the ice to a waiting Jordan Eberle who skated into the left circle and fired the first puck to beat Daniil Tarasov.

New Combos – New Goals

Provorov added his second of the night (on his birthday, no less) in a response goal that bounced off a Kraken body, but Seattle was evening out the ice at this point. Andre Burkovsky had left the game due to a lower-body injury and new forward combinations were playing together in his absence.

One promptly paid off. With 4:29 to play, Dumoulin came low in the offensive zone to keep play on the attack. It would bounce to Bjorkstrand who came higher into the left circle before sending a cross-slot pass to McCann who buried a shot without hesitation to make it 2-2 going into the first intermission.

Playing with Too Many and with Too Few

The Kraken had a must better start to the middle frame but a Will Borgen holding call coupled with a too many men infraction by Seattle gave Columbus a two-skater advantage on their second power play of the game. Less than a minute in, the Blue Jackets rotated within their power play unit allowing Kirill Marchenko to set up in the left circle and score for a 3-2 lead. It was the first short-handed goal allowed by the Kraken in six games.

Tye Game

The Kraken got their first power play of the game three minutes later and while that special teams unit didn’t produce, it set up a bit of momentum as, 22 seconds after the penalty expired, Yanni Gourde won a faceoff with the support of Tye Kartye. The puck went to Vince Dunn at the top of the zone. The defender fired and Kartye had moved net front to deflect the shot past Tarasov making it 3-3. Gourde was rightly awarded the second assist and that gave him 300 points in his NHL career. Something Vince Dunn, talking after morning skate, had predicted would happen tonight.

The Maestro is Special

And while the first power play didn’t score for the Kraken, the second one did. After Dunn made Cole Sillinger answer for a hit on Matty Beniers, an extra two-minute infraction called on the Blue Jacket put Seattle up a skater, and they held the penalty kill in the zone for an extended period of time. With a tired defense on the ice, Seattle started to move the puck rapidly around the zone culminating in a sequence from Schultz to Jared McCann to Oliver Bjorkstrand who used his wicked release to give the Kraken their first lead of the game. The setup marked McCann’s second point of the game and gave him 300 career NHL points.

“Both guys. . . Jared McCann and Yanni Gourde reaching 300, that's a heck of a milestone for guys in this league,” Hakstol said. “I hope they both take pride in it. I know that their teammates were excited for them and it's nice to be able to do that on a night when our team earns two points.”

Pass-pass-Shoot

McCann wasn’t done either. After a takeaway by Brandon Tanev in the defensive zone, the Kraken would reset and when they began their attack, Dumoulin sent play north with a pass to Jaden Schwartz on the left boards. He fed McCann with a quick pass of his own and given space, McCann carried, deked, and fired his second of the game to make it 5-3.

The feeling of a multi-point game must have sparked a trend because just over two minutes later, with his dad in the building, Dumoulin would attack off the rush to push the goal tally to 6-3, and while Emil Bemstrom would add one score for the Blue Jackets in the final period, the Kraken held onto the lead with Eeli Tolvanen adding an empty net score in the final 65 seconds of play.

By The Numbers

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