Kraken Snag Key Home Win To Extend Streak

Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer alluded in Sunday’s victorious postgame dressing room to his team’s better overall play of late and the need to continue that in their home rink.

Grubauer had just stopped 31 of 32 shots in a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers that marked the Kraken’s season high fourth win in a row. An early power play for the Flyers enabled Grubauer to make four quick saves and hone his focus to where he was “seeing the puck” well, though he admitted his teammates had plenty to do with that.

“The (goalie) numbers are always a reflection of how the team plays,” Grubauer said. “So, without the team in front of us, we couldn’t do this. The way we play, the way we block shots, box out, let us see the puck. The way we worked back in our zone as a five-man unit, without that it wouldn’t be possible.”

Flyers coach Rick Tocchet lamented postgame that his team hadn’t done more to get to the net front on Grubauer despite outshooting the Kraken 32-20. That’s also testament to the Kraken’s play in front of Grubauer – as he noted – by defenders allowing him a clear line of sight on incoming blasts.

And play this way at home the team needed to do, having dropped seven of their prior eight home contests in regulation. But these four consecutive regulation wins have thrust the Kraken back within the thick of playoff contention as they embark on a stretch of 21 games in 39 days ahead of the February break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina.

Jordan Eberle snapped a scoreless tie with his team-leading 14^th goal of the season early in the second period on a one-timer from the slot off a nice pass out from the corner by Kaapo Kakko. The Kraken began taking over the game from there and Chandler Stephenson added a key insurance marker early in the third period off some great forechecking work by linemate Eeli Tolvanen.

Tolvanen outhustled a Flyers defenseman on a high dump-out pass that traveled the length of the ice. He then forced Flyers goalie Dan Vladar to play the puck behind the net, but Tolvanen jumped on it and fed it out front to a waiting Stephenson for the centerman’s fifth goal in his last seven games.

In the final minutes, Tolvanen capped a strong night with two empty net goals of his own sandwiched around the lone Philadelphia marker by Carl Gunderstrom that ended Grubauer’s shutout bid with 1:58 to play.

The Kraken are now just one point behind San Jose and Utah for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot but hold two games in-hand on the Sharks and three on the Mammoth. That makes it imperative for them to capitalize on this homestand and extend a winning streak against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night and the Nashville Predators on Thursday.

“You’ve got to keep building, keep doing the right things,” Grubauer said. “Before the (last) road trip there, we played pretty great but didn’t get the bounces sometimes. And the outcome we wanted. Now, we’ve found a way to be successful in certain areas.”

It helped that the Kraken got forward Jared McCann back from a lower body injury for this one and defenseman Vince Dunn from an upper body injury as well.

The need for the Kraken to play better at home has been a priority for the team since training camp and seemed solved after a franchise best 3-0-1 start at Climate Pledge. But that was ultimately negated by the seven losses in eight home games.

The Kraken entered the season just 71-75-18 all-time at home for a .976 points percentage that was only slightly better than their 71-78-15 mark and .957 percentage on the road. That trend had largely continued ahead of Sunday’s game, with the Kraken 7-7-3 with a 1.00 points percentage at home compared to 8-7-3 and a 1.05 road percentage.

“These games after the break, sometimes they’re a little lethargic,” Eberle said after scoring his fourth goal in the last three games. “But we don’t really have the option to not play well. I mean, the standings are what they are. We’ve got to find a way to climb and we’ve done that of late and we’ve got another chance tomorrow. It’s pretty tight so we’ve got to keep going.”

Eberle said it’s no coincidence the goals have been piling up for him, given the developing chemistry he and Matty Beniers have found with new linemate Kakko.

“On that goal, Matty did a good job of driving in and finding Kaapo (Kakko) and then he did a great job of finding me,” Eberle said of the cross-ice pass out from the corner. “I mean, we’ve got to find a way to create a bit more offense. I think I’ve kind of had three or four (goals of late) and I’ve been fortunate to bury them. But this is the first time I’ve played with Kap (Kakko), so I think as the games go on we’re going to develop more chemistry.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert had mentioned leading up to the game that his team needed to do better at home. And Lambert felt they did just that at what’s still a critical juncture in the season as they try to undo damage from losing 10 of 11 at one point earlier this month.

“Yeah, it’s really important,” Lambert said. “I thought for the most part – and we talked about it this morning – that there’s potential for a little bit of sloppiness or whatever. I thought that if we were sloppy at times – although I didn’t think we were all that sloppy – that our goaltender played great for us and that’s what you need.

“But overall, I liked our team game. I like the way we’re playing for each other. And I thought that our structure, for the most part, was pretty good.”

So did Grubauer, who felt his team did a lot of little things right in this game to secure the valuable home win as his team seeks to build one of those longer stretches that can propel squads to better things.

“I mean, details are always huge,” Grubauer said. “Every shift matters. Every shift is really important. It doesn’t matter if it starts on the forecheck, or in the neutral zone and goes into our defensive zone. Those moments are key. And if you have one shift off it might cost you, right? And that’s the way you’ve got to play in the playoffs, too.

“So, we’ve got to find a way to keep building and playing that way because great teams do it consistently.”