Eberle has 2 points, Kraken hold off Devils

SEATTLE -- Jordan Eberle had a goal and an assist, and the Seattle Kraken held on for a 4-2 win against the New Jersey Devils at Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday.

Matty Beniers, Ryker Evans and Berkly Catton scored for the Kraken (23-19-9), who had lost seven of their previous nine (2-5-2). Joey Daccord made 27 saves.

“I think for me, it's just any time coach tells me it's my turn to play, it’s just go in there and give your absolute best and give everything for the team and leave it all out there,” Daccord said. “That’s what I tried to do tonight.”

Dougie Hamilton and Jack Hughes each had a goal and an assist, and Connor Brown had two assists for the Devils (27-23-2), who had won their previous three and finished 3-1-0 on a four-game road trip. Jacob Markstrom made 15 saves.

“There’s a lot of positives from this trip that we’ve got to take away from,” New Jersey defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “But man, oh man, just a lost opportunity for us to at least even take it to overtime and get something out of it.”

Hamilton gave the Devils a 1-0 lead on the power play at 8:11 of the first period. He finished a Hughes pass from below the goal line with a snap shot from the right face-off circle past Daccord's blocker.

“Special teams are going well right now for us. That’s something we’ve got to build on,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “I think we’ve got to work on our 5-versus-5 game.”

It was the 10th straight game Seattle has allowed a goal against in the first 10 minutes.

Evans tied it 1-1 at 7:37 of the second period when his long-distance wrist shot deflected off the stick of New Jersey defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic in the slot and trickled through Markstrom's pads. The goal came after a forecheck from the Kraken's fourth line of Ryan Winterton, Frederick Gaudreau and Jacob Melanson.

“I mean, they've been great for us all year so far,” Evans said. “[They were] just getting in there, obviously forechecking hard, I think they were just causing chaos, and I just got it through to the net and was able to get a lucky bounce.”

Beniers put Seattle up 2-1 at 7:04 of the third period. Eberle slid the puck to Beniers, who cut across the slot into the bottom of the right circle and roofed a backhander over Markstrom's glove.

“Matty, nasty goal, outrageous celly. I absolutely loved it,” Daccord said. “I loved every second of it.”

Catton pushed the lead to 3-1 just 18 seconds later at 7:22. Chandler Stephenson found Catton at the left side of the net with a cross-slot feed. Catton shot the puck off the outside of the net, but it popped into the air, hit his body, and dropped into an open net. It was the fifth goal in the past 11 games for Catton, who went his first 27 without scoring.

“I mean, I went what? 27 games without a goal? That’s a long time,” said Catton, who was the No. 8 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. “It’s nice that they’re kind of starting to go in here… I have no clue how it went in. I had it, I shot it on net, and it hit the side of the net, and then I don’t know what happened after that.”

Hughes responded 52 seconds later at 8:14 to cut the deficit to 3-2 with a power-play goal, gliding toward the left dot and snapping a shot that deflected off Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson’s right leg and floated under Daccord’s blocker.

“When you score two power-play goals in a game, you should win it every single time, so that’s disappointing,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It’s not just on the third period for me, it’s the whole kind of process. It’s disappointing not to get points today.”

Eberle secured the 4-2 final with an empty-net goal at 18:48.

“Great start, absolutely beyond frustrating way to finish because we just beat ourselves,” Dillon said. “The game’s right there, we talked about it after the second, be content in a basically 1-1 hockey game, and it’s two plays completely our doing.”

NOTES: Seattle scored twice in under 20 seconds for the third time this season, tied with Edmonton for the second-most instances, behind Colorado (four times). ... Kraken forward Matty Beniers played his 300th NHL game. ... Hamilton passed Joe Cirella (50) for the fifth-most goals by a defenseman in Devils/Rockies/Scouts history. He also extended his point streak to eight games (one goal, nine assists).