Wright has 2 goals, assist for Kraken in win against Ducks

ANAHEIM -- Shane Wright had two goals and an assist for the Seattle Kraken in a 3-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.

Wright, the No. 4 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, has four points (three goals, one assist) in three games since being recalled from Coachella Valley of the American Hockey League on March 31.

"Just playing with confidence," Wright said after the first multipoint game of his NHL career. "Playing with a little bit of swagger. I got some pretty good passes from my linemates."

Matty Beniers also scored, and Philipp Grubauer made 16 saves for the Kraken (32-31-13), who have won four of six and have been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention. Oliver Bjorkstrand had two assists.

Leo Carlsson scored, and Lukas Dostal made 24 saves for the Ducks (25-48-4), who have lost six of seven (1-5-1) and also been eliminated from contention.

"From where I stood on the bench, it was Leo Carlsson and then a huge gap to the rest of the Anaheim Ducks tonight. Huge," Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. "He was one guy that I felt that tried to make something happen every play. He was outworking people for pucks, outskating people."

Wright gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 16:08 of the first period, redirecting Bjorkstrand’s wrist shot from the slot past Dostal.

"I thought he was a confident player with the puck and he definitely did a good job on the defensive side as well," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said of Wright.

Wright made it 2-0 at 2:29 of the second period with a one-timer from the bottom of the right face-off circle off a pass from Jaden Schwartz from behind the net.

"They did a good job at moving the puck around and got some shots through," Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas said. "We didn't do a good enough job in front of the net there."

Beniers pushed it to 3-0 at 11:40 of the second period with a power-play goal when Wright’s centering pass went in off his skate in front.

"[Beniers] has been great," Wright said. "We've been roommates on the road here on this trip. It's been great to be able to spend some time with him and learn from him and his experience."

The goal was the 100th point of Beniers' NHL career, making him the first Seattle draft pick to reach the mark.

"I've been playing around a lot of really good players the last two and some years," said Beniers, who was the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. "It's been fun and I'm having fun. Obviously, I wish we were in a lot better position than we are now."

Carlsson cut it to 3-1 at 16:35. He picked up a loose puck in the offensive zone, skated through the right circle and beat Grubauer with a wrist shot.

NOTES: Beniers has 41 goals and 59 assists for his NHL career. He has 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in eight career games against Anaheim. … Cale Fleury had three hits in 13:30 of ice time in his season debut for Seattle after the defenseman was recalled from Coachella Valley on Friday. … Nikita Nesterenko had four hits in 12:08 of ice time in the forward's season debut for Anaheim after he was recalled from San Diego of the AHL on Friday. ... Gudas played 18:31 after missing the previous 10 games with an upper-body injury.