Third Period is Charm Again for Kraken

ANAHEIM – The Kraken reached another third-period crossroad against the first-place Anaheim Ducks, the score tied 1-1 with Philipp Grubauer keeping his teammates in the hunt and a sellout home crowd of 16,214 roaring at every Anaheim offensive attempt. This was no holiday on ice. This time, for the second straight game, the third period was paydirt in a 3-1 Seattle victory.

The Kraken are back to .500 at 14-14-6, just five points out of the second wild-card spot with four games in hand on Utah in that spot. San Jose and St. Louis are also ahead of Seattle, but the Good Guys have two games in hand on the Sharks and four games fewer than the Blues. There is one more chance to leverage standings points at Los Angeles on Tuesday. The Kings are in the first wild-card spot, five points ahead of Seattle. And, yes, the Kraken have four games in hand on LA.

That might be a lot of standings discussion with more than half an NHL season still in the balance. But no less a pro and keen observer than Kraken play-by-play man and future Hall of Famer John Forslund has said for years that after the winter holidays is the time fans can start talking about who is what position in the conferences. With the Kraken on a two-game win streak, let’s be OK with opening this present a wee bit early.

The aforementioned Grubauer gifted his teammates and coaching staff 40 saves, including 33 in the last two periods alone. He faced 13 high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick. He is now 5-3-1 on the year with a .911 save percentage.

The other gift of the night was the buzzsaw of a fourth line of Ben Meyers between Tye Kartye and Jacob Melanson. The trio turned in rough-and-rumble shifts with Kartye and Ross Johnston, who perpetrated a hit on Vince Dunn that ended the Kraken D-man’s night with no update on his condition. The line, with Kartye at the forefront, energized the Kraken when needed most.

“We were playing on our heels,” said Jordan Eberle, who scored the game-winning and added a dagger empty netter with 30 seconds left. [Anaheim] were all over us, and [the Meyers line] went out and created some energy for us. That's what we needed to do. So good on them.”

Coach Lane Lambert gave full credit and high marks to the Meyers line and his goaltender: “That line turned it around for us in the third period with a couple of great shifts, a couple of big hits that got us emotionally involved. I thought that between them and Philip Grubauer, they were probably the main reason we won the game. Grubi played outstanding.”

Turning Point as Beniers Turns on the Speed

Mid-period was raucous with lots of bodies flying into other bodies, precipitated by Ducks forward Ross Johnston blindsiding Vince Dunn, who dropped to the ice with no subsequent penalty call. Kartye was in the middle of the physicality for Seattle, same with linemate Jacob Melanson.

Anaheim was controlling the shot chart, but suddenly and wonderfully, the Matty Beniers line headed up ice three across. Beniers was speeding into the zone and found linemate and captain Jordan Eberle, stationed at a 45-degree angle, crouched, accepting the pass and wristing a rising shot past Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal. Kaapo Kakko, who won a puck battle to move the play up ice, notched the secondary assist.

With a half-period left in the third frame, the Kraken took care of the business of protecting the lead for the second straight road game. Anaheim sent waves of offensively gifted forwards and D-men into the Kraken zone but couldn’t shake Grubauer and company. The intensity was 10 of 10 until Eberle iced it with a late empty net goal.

Soon after, Kartye and Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier were scrapping again, both going off for two-minute roughing calls. They finished the late game with one more go that sent them both off with double-digit penalty minutes.

Opportunity Knocks and Answered

Just under five minutes into the middle period, the Kraken seized the opening they were looking for. Chandler Stephenson drove the net – an ongoing Seattle habit here Monday – and Anaheim defenseman Jacob Trouba had no choice but to slash Stephenson in the prevention of a mini-breakaway. Precisely 30 seconds later, Freddy Gaudreau was one of three forwards camped around Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal. The veteran forward and summer trade acquisition took his whack at the loose puck and got it over the goal line. Second-unit power play mates Shane Wright (primary) and Kaapo Kakko earned assists.

Anaheim picked up its second power play opportunity less than three minutes later, this time putting more pressure and pucks on net. Philipp Grubauer fended off four shots on goal during the two minutes, proving the truism that the best penalty killer is most often the goaltender. Grubauer no doubt would deflect the credit to the PK forward and defenseman pairs in front of him. Let’s give the team effort a rock-solid rating on the first two penalty kills.

“Awesome job on the penalty kills,” said Grubauer, ever modest. “I mean, everybody makes it easy for me. Everybody's on the same page. Lindy [Lindgren] had a huge block. There were guys stepping up and eating those shots. That's what we need.”

Anaheim has notched the third-most goals in the NHL. Grubauer said he knows who the most dangerous opposing scorers are.

“I always know who's on their forward side,” said Grubauer. “They're really shifty. They activate their ‘D’ pretty well. They spread us out pretty well. But we found a way to keep them to the outside and box guys out.”

Not the Best Start Until...

The first half-minute of this game did not start on a promising note. Matty Beniers was whistled off for slashing just 31 seconds into the night. The rowdy home fans thought a goal was scored on the play, but the penalty was called when Seattle gained possession before the puck ricocheted past starting goalie Philipp Grubauer.

As it turned out, the penalty-kill performance actually gave the Kraken a boost in belief. The PK units not only shut out Anaheim, holding them to zero shots on goal, but Seattle also had a couple of scoring chances, with the only shot a high-danger net-front rush by Ryan Winterton. Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal was forced to make a difficult save.

From there, the Kraken controlled most of the shifts in the period’s first half with veteran forward Freddy Gaudreau continuing his recent aggressive offensive pushes as right wing on the Chandler Stephenson line. He drove to the net in the ninth minute with Dostal making another sharp stop. Seattle mustered seven high-danger scoring chances in the first frame alone. The Ducks responded with some runs at Grubauer, though a lot of the first period was transacted in the neutral zone.

Montour Out Four Weeks, Evans Subs as Power Play QB

The Kraken announced earlier Monday that defenseman Brandon Montour will be out for four weeks, placed on the injured reserve list after successful hand surgery. Montour fought veteran defenseman Brent Burns in Colorado's home game on Wednesday and left the ice immediately after the scrap.

“Obviously, a tough loss,” said Ryan Lindgren, Montour’s regular defense partner this season. “Monty is an incredible player. Great team guy, too. We’ve got guys who step up. We've dealt with injuries throughout the year. We've had that mentality of the next guy up. That's the case again.”

Grubauer to the Rescue

Kraken coach Lane Lambert was not pleased with how the second period got away from them, allowing a high-octane Ducks offensive attack to control a sizeable portion of the middle 20 minutes.

But Lambert and his players were more inclined to praise their goaltender for keeping this game within reach with 16 big stops in the second period, allowing just the one aforementioned Ducks goal that came on a shot deflected off a stick, then the ice itself, and finally a body before slithering past Grubauer. The Kraken goaltender and soon-to-be the Winter Olympics backstop for Germany made a handful of huge saves in the four minutes and 20 seconds after Anaheim evened the game at 1-1. In period one, the Ducks out-chanced Seattle 13 to 2 with six high-danger scoring chances.