Three Goals Not Enough

EDMONTON – After three-and-a-half periods of scoreless play over two recent defeats, the Kraken tallied three times in the second period here in Alberta. But it wasn’t enough as Edmonton forward Evander Kane scored twice in regulation, including the tying goal with less than a minute remaining to push this divisional matchup into overtime.

Kane then scored his third straight goal, a natural hat trick, to down Seattle, 4-3 in overtime. Seattle gets one standings point but the host Oilers have accumulated four points in the season series to date, plus put together a three-game winning streak in the process to move to 5-9-1 on the season while Seattle now sits at 5-8-4.

The Kraken won’t have much time to dwell on Wednesday’s sudden turnarounddefeat. The New York Islanders will be lined up for a 7 p.m. puck drop at Climate Pledge Arena Thursday after playing in Vancouver Wednesday, losing their sixth straight game with the Canucks coming back to force and win in overtime. 

“This one's gonna sting on the way home,” said coach Dave Hakstol after the game in which he faced a former assistant coach during his Flyers days, Kris Knoblauch, now the head man for Edmonton. “We’ve got to turn the page and get ready to go tomorrow night.”

Kraken End Goal Drought

After scoring just one goal in each of the last two games, the Kraken power play late first period was a good place to start a multiple-goal night. But the man-advantage opportunity didn’t add up to much. Seattle did fire off 14 shots on goal with more than a few good looks and three Grade-A scoring chances per Natural Stat Trick. The period ended with the Kraken scoreless streak at 103-plus minutes since Brandon Tanev scored six minutes into the first period of Monday’s loss.

The skein was snapped at 111:27 when Kraken forward Jared McCann scored his seventh goal of the season by rushing the net. Jordan Eberle’s shot-pass caromed off McCann’s skate and past Oilers goal Stuart Skinner. Eberle, suffering what he called a “scary” cut in practice last week, was playing in his first game since Nov. 7 at Arizona in which he also recorded an assist. It was good to see Eberle back on the Matty Beniers line with McCann. The alternate captain added a bump in quality playmaking and nearly scored in the final period.

Seattle waited just two minutes of play to double their goal total and then added a third goal by period’s end. The second goal was scored by 38-year-old veteran and popular teammate Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who deftly redirected a Vince Dunn shot. It’s Bellemare’s second goal of the season, a welcome accompaniment to his solid faceoff percentage and rugged fourth-line center performance to date. Dunn now leads the Kraken with 13 assists.

Alex Wennberg scored his first goal of the season (after one was disallowed Monday) in high style, working net front against stellar Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm.  He took a pass from Eeli Tolvanen and with a second-effort swipe of the stick, he moved the puck past EDM goalie Stuart Skinner to make it 3-1.

Dissecting the Tying Goal

Post-game, a measured Bellemare was matter-of-fact about his goal, fully crediting Dunn for getting the shot net-front and reminding the media scrum the Kraken did pick up a standings point. The free-agent signee was more heated about Leon Draisaitl holding him for a fraction of a second on the faceoff that led to Kane’s tying goal in the last minute of regulation. Some observers might compare it to an illegal pick in football (basically interference) and an equally measured Dave Hakstol referred to it as Bellemare getting “bulldogged.”

“Yes, I got picked,” said Bellemare. “I mean, it's just a smart play. He just held me on the ice for an extra half a second, which makes me late on the come-up.”

“We worked pretty hard all the way through the game,” said Hakstol. “It comes down to the tying goal. Our centerman gets bulldogged, so we're not able to pressure that half of the ice. And it puts us a little bit in the soup down low. It's disappointing, without question, because of how hard our players worked. It was a pretty solid road game they played.”

Wennberg Cracks the Goal Category

Alex Wennberg does a lot of small things every game night that add up to major contributions: He is an elite penalty killer who can generate shorthanded scoring chances too. He is one of the team’s better passers. He draws penalties with his speed. His stamina is almost a secret weapon for the Kraken coaching staff to eat up minutes in a game and/or over a busy schedule like the one Seattle currently faces.  Seattle is in the midst of five games in eight nights followed by a pair of home divisional tilts on Thanksgiving eve (San Jose) and Thanksgiving Friday (Vancouver). 

One detail misses from Wennberg’s first 16 games: No goals, though he’s clanged some posts and had a “shorty” disallowed Monday. Alex Wennberg scored his first goal of the season in high style, working net-front against stellar Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm. He took a pass from Eeli Tolvanen, then with a fooling change of direction and a second-effort swipe of the stick, he moved the puck past EDM goalie Stuart Skinner to make it 3-1.

Tolvanen, no small thing, almost iced the game at 4-1 but his wicked shot was spectacularly snared by Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner on the glove hand. Skinner, btw, has posted save percentages of .944 (Saturday vs. SEA), .970 (Islanders Monday) and .917 (Wednesday) to fuel the Oilers recent surge.

After the overtime loss, Wennberg said he was happy to get that elusive first goal of the season and “maybe build on it for sure.” But he was understandably more focused on closing out future games.

“We had our chances,” said Wennberg. “I feel like we had opportunities to score a couple more goals ...  Obviously, it’s a tough way to end it. We can’t lose a game like this. It was one of those games you just gotta fight through and find a way to win.”

Daccord Draws in Again

Joey Daccord got the start in net for the second straight game, even with a 5-1 Monday loss to Colorado on his game logs. That’s twice now that the rookie has been tabbed for back-to-back starts, the first time included three straight road starts that produced three standings points via an overtime win (Detroit), overtime loss (Carolina), and a one-goal loss (Florida).

Overall, Daccord supplied standings points in five of seven starts totaling seven points going into Wednesday. Teammate Philipp Grubauer’s 3-6-0 record equates to standings points in three of nine starts totaling six points. Daccord’s save percentage in Seattle’s first 16 was .903 while Grubauer is at .891.

Dave Hakstol might have been telegraphing his Wednesday starter when praising Daccord’s work after the Boston native surrendered five goals, pointing out that Daccord made big saves in the first two periods when the game was within reach. Daccord rewarded the coaching decision with three saves on Grade-A Oilers' chances in the first period, including a mini-break by EDM defenseman Cody Ceci mid-frame for which the Kraken goalie would not have been blamed if a goal resulted. Another valuable save was Daccord’s stop on an Evander Kane tip-in attempt net-front just 22 seconds before the intermission horn.

Daccord gave up a go-ahead goal early second period when Connor McDavid collected a pass from fellow superstar Leon Draisaitl, creating a wide-open lane. McDavid deked backhand, prompting Daccord to commit, and then shuffled right to open the night’s scoring.

Daccord kept the one-goal lead with two quality stops, first on first-line wing Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and then in short order a big stop on the aforementioned Draisaitl (who enjoyed his 24^th career four-point Monday against the New York Islanders). A half-minute later, Alex Wennberg made it 3-1. Daccord’s activity was down to seven Oilers shots in the middle period, but he rose to the occasions as needed throughout the first 40 minutes.

Daccord faced 10 shots in the third period and another three in overtime. He made more big stops in that span but Kane’s net-front persistence crashed the Kraken victory line that beckoned as the clock ticked (too slowly as it turns out) in the final minute of regulation.

“We played a great road game for 56 minutes and even in the last five, six minutes, I didn't think we played poorly,” said Daccord. “They just found a score. That’s frustrating. At the end of the day, I think we probably deserve to win tonight.”