Final Buzzer: Wild, Wild Western Night in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES -Some nights you go off-script, way off-script. That happened here in the vicinity of Hollywood proper Tuesday. What was anticipated to be a grinding, tight, defensive-leaning game turned into a "High Noon" old-school western shootout during the first period. The undoing of any possible goalie duel started early, 16 seconds into the game.
The wild back-and-forth goal scoring was so furious, fans needed the scoreboard here in Crypto.com Arena or score graphic watching on ROOT SPORTS. You basically could lose track and/or be jolted back to rollicking reality musing about how the last goal was scored when the next goal light went on.
By mid-third period, the game was 8-7 when Los Angeles closed the first two-goal of the night back to a tenuous one-goal margin yet again. Just more than a minute later, Los Angeles tied the game again and the final six-plus was nerve-wracking for all involved. The game going to overtime seemed only fair that each team's goal scorers come away with a point for their squads.

To be frank, the overtime didn't entirely cheer up players like Jared McCann and Andre Burakovsky, who both scored two goals on the night. They were practically glum talking about surrendering so many goals and leaving goalie Martin Jones without much a chance on most of the scores. Both said it was imperative the team get back to "who we are" and how the Kraken played during most of the current six-game winning streak and throughout a November that included a five-game winning streak as well (with one October game in that win streak). And their coach agreed.
"It's not a formula that anybody wants to duplicate, but we did get two points out of it," said Dave Hakstol. "It's the end of a long divisional run here [the Kraken swept all five games]. We get a day off tomorrow. We get to clear our heads. We don't have a day of practice. We don't need a day of practice. We just need to get back to it when we get back and play at home here in two days."
The overtime was as thrilling and crazy as the rest of this memorable game. Andre Burakovsky scored his second goal of the Wild Night to bring a 9-8 victory to Seattle, with the primary assist going to Jordan Eberle, his fourth of the night. There was joy and relief on the ice and Kraken bench.

Believe It or Not, Part 1

Crazy fact: When Oliver Bjorkstrand scored the Kraken's seventh goal mid-second period, it moved the score to 7-5 in favor of Seattle. It was the first two-goal lead of the game for either team. The Kraken and Kings effectively traded goals during the previous 11 scores here in a game that was not conducive to making a sandwich in the kitchen or otherwise taking your eyes off John Forslund and JT Brown calling the game on ROOT SPORTS.

Believe It or Not, Part 2

Despite the gaudy numbers on the scoreboard, Kraken goalie Martin Jones made several huge saves to keep the game at 1-1 and 2-2 during the first-period fireworks, stopping the likes of LA forwards Blake Lizotte and Trevor Moore. When Seattle went up 7-5, Jones and the penalty kills doused the two minutes in large part due to spectacular saves by Jones against Viktor Arvidsson on a breakaway, plus close-in attempts by free-agent signee Kevin Fiala, Arthur Kaliyev (who scored two power plays in a Sunday win over Ottawa) and perennial all-star Anze Kopitar. Jones ended the night stopping 27 of the 35 pucks sent on goal.
Of course, Los Angeles narrowed the lead yet again to make it 7-6 right after the late-second period ended and before a fifth Kraken player could skate to the scene. Before Andre Burakovsky joined the free-for-all scoresheet inside of the final minute of the second period, Jones made one more monster stop on Kaliyev, who grimaced for a second time in short order at not getting the puck past Jones. Credit to Dave Hakstol and his staff, who watched LA change goalies but held firm with a player who had been in net for 11 previous wins this season and clearly is highly capable of making the "timely saves" that Hakstol describes as a necessary agreement on not just penalty kills but at times when another goal can give the opponent momentum and game control.
"Zero," said Hakstol when asked if he gave any consideration to pulling Jones. "Through the first half the hockey game, whatever it was at the halfway point, it was a 7-5 hockey game and he had made four or five outstanding saves. I don't believe he had a whole lot of opportunity on the ones that went by him."

Believe it or Not, Part 3

We can keep doing this the entire plane ride back to Seattle, but let's contain it to one more section of have-to-see-it-to-believe-it material will do for now. The Kraken won their sixth straight game, breaking the franchise record five-game win streak they set earlier this month-as in November, in which the squad posted a 10-1-1 record. It's the sixth straight win over Pacific Division opponents dating back to a Nov. 1 road win over Calgary and including the last five games played this month (LA at home, San Jose at home, in Vegas, in Anaheim, and here in LA). The nine goals break a record that Kraken set less than a week ago on Thanksgiving Eve.
There's more: The Kraken's last two road trips have resulted in a pair of three-game sweeps. The team is 8-1-1 on the road. Matty Beniers has 12 points in his last five games, including two goals Tuesday, his eighth and ninth of the season. It's his first multi-goal game and won't be the last. Jordan Eberle notched four assists and has 13 points in the last nine games. Justin Schultz notched three assists of his own and now has 10 points in his last six games.
Whew, one more item: Hockey broadcast legend, on-air personality, and must-follow Twitter contributor John Shannon let the rest of us know the longest time between goals in the first two periods was five minutes and 46 seconds of playing time.

First Things First

The Kings scored first and fast, 16 seconds into this final of three divisional games on the road trip. In the first of two power play goals for Seattle, rookie rock star Matty Beniers scored his eighth goal of the year, sending a heads-up chance pass to Alex Wennberg net front. Wennberg attempted to tip the puck past two-time Stanley Cup-winning goalie Jonathan Quick. The Kings goalie made the save but rebounded out front where Beniers had smartly skated to after the pass. It was Beniers' third goal in the last five games to go with seven assists during the same stretch.

Three minutes later, Jordan Eberle was working the puck behind the Los Angeles goal line, getting LAK defenseman Mikey Anderson to pursue. Instead of turning toward the goal, the veteran alternate captain took a couple of strides toward the blue line, then abruptly and gracefully reversed, shaking free of Anderson and sending the puck to linemate Jared McCann for a quick tap-in with long-time Kings defenseman coming to cover McCann too late.

Problem is, the "High Noon" thing was just gearing up. One shift later, Kraken D-man Vince Dunn was whistled for a two-minute roughing penalty when he ripped the helmet off LA forward Blake Lizotte. The Kings scored nine seconds later to tie matters at two goals apiece.
The Pacific Division squads traded power-play goals to make it 3-3 before 20 minutes could expire and both coaching staffs could retreat to the locker room whiteboards or whatever they could conjure to get this back to the systems both Seattle's Dave Hakstol and LA's Todd McLellan likes to play. In total, 12 different players from SEA and LA logged at least one point (goal or assist in the opening period).