Kraken pull away from Maple Leafs for 3rd straight victory

TORONTO -- Vince Dunn had a goal and two assists to help the Seattle Kraken defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

"I think a lot of bounces went my way," the defenseman said. "All my points were created off the forwards working hard and finding me to get the puck, so a lot of credit to them. They made it easy on me to play my game."
Seattle defeated the New York Islanders 4-1 on Sunday and won 5-2 at the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
"There's still another level (for us) to give," Dunn said. "Shutting down those teams was great, but [there were] a couple shaky moments (against the Maple Leafs) where [Martin] Jones kept it a close game for us. When we are feeling our game, it translates and trickles down to the goalie's playing style, I think he feels it and feels confident back there, makes the saves he needs. And for the most part we did a good job defensively out there."

Jared McCann had a goal and an assist, and Martin Jones made 26 saves for the Kraken (21-12-4). Seattle won its third straight and improved to 11-4-2 on the road, matching its road wins total from last season, when the first-year expansion team was 11-27-3 away from Climate Pledge Arena.
John Tavares scored, and Matt Murray made 21 saves for the Maple Leafs (23-9-7), who have lost two in a row.
"I didn't like that we weren't able to capitalize and take control of the game on the scoreboard with how well we played in the first period, and then the game is up for grabs from there," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said.

The Kraken had been outshot 8-0 in the first period until getting their first shot at 11:27, by Daniel Sprong. The Maple Leafs outshot them 9-3 in the period.
"They kind of jumped on us at the start of the game, but I thought we did a pretty good job of weathering the storm a little bit," Jones said. "They got a couple chances, but once we got our legs, started checking, started skating, we were able to control a lot of the play tonight."
Seattle went up 2-1 at 11:08 of the second period when Dunn's shot deflected off the skate of Toronto defenseman Mark Giordano at the top of the goal crease. The goal came 14 seconds after the Maple Leafs tied it.
"Biggest goal of the game, biggest point of the game when they tied it up and the momentum can push the other way," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "For our group to be able to come back and get that goal, that was the biggest turning point of the hockey game."

McCann made it 3-1 at 13:50 when he shot over Murray's glove on a breakaway.
"We made some big mistakes," Keefe said. "The breakaway is a big mistake. The game is already 2-1, you can't make that mistake. That's one that we'd like to have back. It's a tough game to play when you are constantly pulling the puck out of your net. I thought that took the life away from us a little bit but I'm not going to overthink that part of the game. We didn't do enough offensively to really gain traction and keep ourselves afloat."
Matty Beniers pushed the lead to 4-1 at 17:25 when he got to a loose puck just inside the left hash marks, spun and shot between Murray's blocker and chest protector.
The Kraken went up 5-1 at 2:57 of the third period when Alex Wennberg took a pass from Yanni Gourde on a 2-on-1 and tapped the puck under Murray's left pad.
Eeli Tolvanen put Seattle up 1-0 on the power play at 7:02 of the second period when he one-timed a pass at the top of the right face-off circle from Dunn.
Tavares tied it 1-1 on the power play at 10:54 when he deflected Mitchell Marner's point shot in the slot.
"Really good first period by us, but [it's] just consistency," Marner said. "We just have to make sure we keep going with that same mindset. We gave up that one on the kill and then I don't know, it seemed their push just outworked us, outchanced us and that's just unacceptable. We have to be better than that."

The Kraken have won the first two of a season-high seven-game road trip.
"I've never been on a trip this long, so we're just going to take it a piece at a time," Hakstol said. "We got a good win at home before we left town, nice win in the division on the road against Edmonton and then to be able to come in here and play well again, that sets us up well."
NOTES: Beniers and Marner
each was named
to the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Thursday. It was Beniers' first selection and Marner's second. … Maple Leafs forward Alex Kerfoot had a four-game point streak end. ... Toronto Pierre Engvall had a six-game point streak end. ... Kraken defenseman Carson Soucy left the game at 12:00 of the third after taking a puck to the face. There was no update. … Seattle defenseman Adam Larsson had a seven-game point streak end. … Kraken forward Brandon Tanev had an assist and extended his point streak to four games (four points; two goals, two assists).