Final Buzzer: Curtailed Cats

SUNRISE, FL -The Kraken lost to the Panthers just over a week ago and they came to Florida determined to not let that happen again. In what was a complete effort from all 18 skaters and their goaltender, Matty Beniers started the scoring just over a minute into the game. When the home team tied it up in the second period, the Kraken responded right away and never let the Panthers back into the game. Andre Burakovsky, Jordan Eberle, Daniel Sprong, and Yanni Gourde added the extra goals to cement a 5-2 victory. Florida is now 0-11 this season when they go down by two or more goals.
In addition to the scoring, there was a lot to like about the Kraken played. They took three penalties against the team that draws the most in the league (4 per game). And when playing down a skater, Seattle was successful in killing each off. Speaking of which, Martin Jones was solid. He had numerous big saves at key points in the game including 10 stops on the penalty kill (four on the first Panther power play alone). In total, the Kraken netminder turned away at least .51 goals that should have gone in the net according to Natural Stat Trick.

"I thought we were really really good tonight that felt like how we were playing on that seven-game winning streak," Martin Jones said. "That was a really strong effort for us. . .we checked really well. When we're playing like that, we just make it really tough on teams to create any offense, anything off the rush. And we just don't spend a ton of time in that zone. A really, really strong effort (tonight)."
What stood out? Let's dig in.

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Role Reversal

The last time these two teams met, Carter Verhaeghe was a thorn in the Kraken's side scoring the first two goals of the game to establish what ended up being an insurmountable lead. This game, the forward once again helped open the scoring, except this time it was for the other team. 51 seconds into the game, Verhaeghe's shot rang off the crossbar. Ten seconds later the puck was in the other end of the ice and the Panther skater lost control of the puck. Jared McCann gathered it up and sent a backhand pass to Beniers in the slot who fired a one-timer past Bobrovsky for the first goal of the game.

Check, Mate

The stat sheet may not always be able to reflect every puck battle, but the Kraken checking game was dialed in this game. The first goal came off a loose puck retrieval by McCann. After Eric Staal evened the score at 1-1, the second Seattle goal came off a perfectly timed takeaway by Oliver Bjorkstrand at the top of the attack zone. The winger gained possession and sent the puck low where Yanni Gourde was able to retrieve it. For his 250th career point, Gourde sent a feed from the half wall to Andre Burakovsky who buried from the top of the right circle for his tenth of the season. The score also marked the tenth time this season the Kraken have scored a response goal right after an opponent's tally.

"I think we kept to it pretty good in the first (period)," Beniers said. "And then I think we've been. . . having trouble keeping our momentum so they had a good pushback, but I think we had another pushback after that. We were able to keep our momentum."
In the second period alone, there were multiple changes in possession that went the Kraken's way thanks to the effort from skaters like Carson Soucy and Beniers who denied more than a couple of scoring chances off Panthers skaters' sticks. The strong fight for puck control continued up and down the lineup throughout all 60 minutes of play. On the official stat sheet, Florida was charged with 15 giveaways.
"Pregame we talked about it," Dave Hakstol said. "We talked about just getting back to who we are and a little bit better (in) five-on-five (play) in terms of all three zones, in terms of how we checked and skated. We did that tonight. That was a big, a big piece of our game."

No Rest for the Weary

The Panthers returned home for Sunday's game after playing in Tampa Bay on Saturday night (a 1-4 loss). It marked the fourth time this season Florida has played in a back-to-back and they have yet to string together two wins in any of those pairings. The Panthers have only won one of the matches in any two-game set once this season (Nov. 5-6). This was also the first time this season that goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has played both games in a back-to-back schedule. He did it once last season and won both games. This loss marked only the ninth time the goaltender has lost both matchups in 54 instances of playing two games in two days.
The Kraken also took advantage of what may have been some tired legs by establishing the first lead of the game and re-setting it going into the second intermission. Going into this game, on the season, the Panthers are 0-6-1 when trailing after one and 0-8-1 when trailing after two.
"I don't like talking about them being on a back-to-back," Yanni Gourde said. "I think we've done that...too often this year. And I think just focus on us, focus on what we can do, focus on our start. Doesn't matter whether they are back-to-back or if they are rested. We just have to go out there and play our game."

By the Numbers

Here's a look at our data-driven Instant Analysis from Sportlogiq (Click
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