Kraken Stage Late Rally, Win In Shootout

When you’ve scored just one goal in more than two months a puck bouncing on to your stick with the net wide open is certainly the gift of a happier night.

That’s how Kraken rookie Berkly Catton felt Thursday night after a misplayed puck by Vegas Golden Knights netminder Adin Hill in the third period left him with a yawning cage even most toddlers couldn’t miss. The Kraken rallied from there as Bobby McMann tied the game minutes later and then it was Catton again, delivering a rare 4-3 shootout victory by scoring in the fourth round on an actual goalie this time.

“It’s crazy how that works,” Catton said of his first goal since mid-March, which started the Kraken back from two down with under 14 minutes to play in regulation. “I’ve had a lot of good looks that haven’t gone in. And then, I get a really good bounce with an open net. So, that one really felt good.”

Almost too good. And too easy.

“I mean, it’s on my stick and I see an open net,” said Catton, who still wasn’t sure postgame exactly how the puck got to him after Hill’s gaffe behind the net. “I even took a little too long, I think.”

Jared McCann had scored a power play goal in the second period to reach the 20-mark for the fifth consecutive season despite a slew of injuries that have limited him to only 51 games played. That cut into a two-goal Vegas lead supplied by a pair from Mark Stone in the first and second period on Joey Daccord.

Brett Howden then supplied an insurance marker early in the third and the Kraken appeared headed to a seventh consecutive loss. Instead, the Catton goal and then McMann’s ninth in just 14 games for his new Kraken team helped snap that streak while also ending a run of four consecutive Vegas wins under new head coach John Tortorella.

The Kraken also managed to stave off elimination from playoff contention for another night, as a shootout loss would have left them unable to overtake Los Angeles for the final Western Conference wild spot. One reason the season has gotten to this brink was an inability to score more than twice, something the Kraken had done in 15 of their prior 21 games since the Winter Olympics break. 

They’d gone 1-13-1 when scoring two or fewer that stretch and 5-14-2 overall since the break. But they were battling hard even before the gift goal to Catton and took full advantage when it happened.

“You could start to point fingers, you could start to overthink, you can start to do a lot of things,” McMann said of the team’s two-goal deficit that period. “But I think this group stuck together and it kind of showed in this game. We were kind of talking after the second period about sticking together, knowing that we were getting chances and knowing that we had what it took to kind of pull this one out and just stuck with it.”

Jordan Eberle made a tough pass to McMann in the right circle after coming up with a puck off the side wall and the big man didn’t miss in snapping it by a screened Hill to the far side.

“We were talking about it all game that that spot on the ice was open,” McMann said. “We were trying to find it and knew that look was there…so, I think his first look was there. I was in that spot and then obviously he won that battle on the wall, which was a great play by him. And then I was able to just kind of send it by one of their (defensemen) there and use him as a screen.”

It’s been a tough week for the Kraken between all the losing, the non-scoring and then the announcement Wednesday that team president Ron Francis was leaving at season’s end by mutual agreement between him and the team. Kraken players and head coach Lane Lambert were questioned by media members about the pending departure at Thursday’s morning skate, following a Climate Pledge Arena press conference in which Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke promised an independent audit of the team’s hockey operations this summer. 

Part of that audit will undoubtedly look at the team’s offensive struggles and what can be done to address them. Leiweke took time to mention the team’s ample salary cap space and draft capital to trade during the press conference as well as saying the Kraken “want this to be a prolific off-season.”

He then added: “This isn’t about mitigation. This is about getting aggressive and getting after it.”

The Kraken got aggressive as the third period wore on and stayed that way through a thrilling back-and-forth overtime and then the shootout. Vegas scored first but then Matty Beniers pulled a fantastic deke move on Hill to tie it in the second round. Daccord held things firm through two more shooters, saw Catton score in his try to put the Kraken ahead and then stopped Pavel Dorofeyev to clinch only the second Kraken shootout win in eight tries this season.

The Kraken netminder appeared injured on a collision early in the third period but stayed in the game with only AHL emergency goalie Nikke Kokko on the bench. After a series of tough stops, Daccord was serenaded with chants of “Jo-ey! Jo-ey!” from the enthusiastic crowd, who repeated their signature call for the goalie as Dorofeyev began his final shootout try.

“It’s amazing,” newly minted 20-goal man McCann said of the crowd. “That’s amazing. Things haven’t really gone our way. To have our fans kind of stay loyal like that and show us the support, it means a lot. And every single guy should look to that.”

Kraken coach Lambert said the “fortuitous bounce” on Catton’s goal helped even out some of the tough calls and disallowed goals that have gone against his team this prior losing stretch.

“It was nice to get a break, for sure,” Lambert said. “And then we gained some momentum and it was a hard fought third period. And I think our goaltender played very, very well.”

Lambert said he waited until one shooter before Catton to tell the rookie he’d use him in the shootout. The resulting goal and rare victory helped ease some of what’s been a dour mood hanging over the team.

“It’s been a hard grind,” Lambert said. “A lot of disappointment, I guess you can say. So, to get one like that and do it in comeback fashion…I though our mentality was better tonight. But it’s nice to put in the effort and get rewarded.”

Even if the early part of that reward was gifted by the opposing goalie. 

Catton’s season has often mirrored his team’s, with plenty of hard work and good process but few offensive results.

“It’s funny, I’ve had games where I’m really feeling it and they haven’t gone in and then a game where I’m not really feeling it I get a bounce like that,” Catton said. “It’s great. So, stuff like that happens from the hockey gods. It’s just pretty crazy.”