Dunn has goal, assist for Kraken in win against Islanders

SEATTLE — Vince Dunn had a goal and an assist, and the Seattle Kraken defeated the New York Islanders 4-1 at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday.

Jared McCann also had a goal and an assist, and Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves for the Kraken (22-18-9), who had lost four straight and six of their past seven games.

Anthony Duclair scored his eighth goal in the past eight games for the Islanders (27-18-5), and Ilya Sorokin made 21 saves. New York completed a seven-game road trip (3-3-1).

“Off in too many areas,” New York forward Anders Lee said. “Little things tonight that we were off on, whether it’s being connected on passes or a couple reads and made a few mistakes that ended up in the back of our net.”

“I think it was our tracking, our backchecking,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “We gave two goals where we should have backchecked better, and they took advantage of those two goals.”

Duclair gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 2:38 of the first period with a one-timer from the left circle that rang off the right post on the power play.

“When we scored that first one, I was pretty happy,” Roy said. “But they did a pretty good job putting pressure on us.”

Seattle was called for seven penalties in the game but killed the next six Islanders power plays after Duclair’s goal.

“We clearly have to stay out of the box. We can't take that many penalties,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “And then, for the rest of the night, after that first power play that they had, I think we did an outstanding job, and I thought our goaltender was great.”

The Kraken tied it 1-1 at 10:40 on a deflection by Matty Beniers off Dunn's shot from the slot on a 5-on-3 power play.

“Jared [McCann] was shooting a lot of pucks, and sometimes you get guys out of position when you're shooting pucks,” Dunn said. “Maybe they go down to block it, and it bounces somewhere a little funny, and then you get a better look from there.”

Dunn made it 2-1 at 13:37 of the second period, finishing a tic-tac-toe passing play with Ben Meyers and Ryan Winterton with a wrist slot from the slot into the top left corner.

“I kind of do a little ’S' because I’m looking to change,” Dunn said. “So, grand scheme of things, it’s nice that I scored there, but probably not looking to take a lot of those [chances] a lot of time. It’s really a great play by ‘Benny’ and ‘Wints’ to get the puck to me there.”

Kaapo Kakko scored on a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 3-1 for Seattle at 16:28 after Jaden Schwartz won a race to a loose puck behind the net, then fed Kakko at the top of the right circle.

“I thought [Kakko] played well,” Lambert said. “I thought the goal he scored, I thought Schwartz did a great job of getting on the forecheck, stealing the puck, and Kaapo came off the bench and buried it.”

“The second and third goals in the second period, I wasn’t happy with the way we backchecked on those plays,” Roy said.

McCann's empty-net goal at 16:32 of the third period made it a 4-1 final.

It was the first time Seattle coach Lane Lambert has defeated his former team since he was fired by the Islanders and replaced by Roy on Jan. 20, 2024.

“It did feel good to beat them, there's no question about it,” Lambert said. “But it felt better just to get a win. We need to get on track.”

NOTES: Seattle (22-18-9, 53 points) earned its ninth comeback win of the season and overtook San Jose (25-21-3, 53 points) for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference by virtue of the regulation wins tiebreaker. … Dunn became the first defenseman in franchise history with 50 career goals.