Kraken top Canucks in shootout, extend point streak to 7

VANCOUVER -- The Seattle Kraken recovered from blowing a third-period lead and extended their point streak to seven games with a 4-3 shootout win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Friday.

Vince Dunn looked to have scored the winning goal with 2:15 left in overtime for Seattle, but the goal was waived off for interference by Berkly Catton. The minor penalty gave the Canucks a 4-on-3, although they were unable to convert. Kraken forward Matty Beniers scored the only goal of the shootout on a hard deke to the forehand in the third round.

“It feels great. Obviously, we want that win, and we didn't get the shootout win last time we played these guys (on Dec. 29), so felt good to get that, especially on a back-to-back,” Beniers said. “(Penalty) kill does a great job putting us in that position to go into a shootout.”

Joey Daccord made 20 saves for the Kraken (18-14-7), who were coming off a 4-1 win at home against the Nashville Predators on Thursday and have points in seven straight (6-0-1).

“We battled,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “When they tilted the ice a little, came back and made it 3-3, we had a push of our own, so that was nice to see and there was a lot of commitment. A gutsy win on a back-to-back.”

Seattle was 0-for-4 in the shootout this season, including the 3-2 home loss to Vancouver four days earlier in which they failed to score.

The shootout was something Seattle focused on in practice this week, including Beniers practicing the move that resulted in the winner, which was also his first shootout attempt of the season.

“That hasn't been necessarily one of my strong suits, shootouts, and that's something I've tried to work on and get better at,” Beniers said.

Jake DeBrusk had a goal and two assists, and Linus Karlsson scored the tying goal for the Canucks (16-20-4), who have one win in five games (1-3-1). Thatcher Demko made 25 saves.

“Good resilience,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said. “The beginning of the third, it seemed like we were rolling and good things happened. It’s tough when you go down 3-1, but we fought back. It would have been nice to get one on the 4-on-3.”

Cale Fleury made it 1-0 for the Kraken 17:34 of the first period, getting a feed at the point and hammering a slap shot into the top corner of the net. It was his second career goal, the last coming Nov. 16, 2019, and it came in his fifth game back after being a healthy scratch for 26 straight games.

“Anytime you score, it's exciting, but it's been a while in this league for me, so it was special,” Fleury said. “For me, it's just trusting my abilities. I know I'm in this league for a reason. I talked with Coach too, [and] he's just telling me to play with confidence, so when you have Coach telling you that it would be kind of rude not to.”

Chandler Stephenson made it 2-0 on a 3-on-2 power-play rush at 8:53 of the second period, one-timing a pass from Jordan Eberle past Demko’s pad from the left face-off dot.

The goal came shortly after the Canucks failed to get a shot on a shorthanded 2-on-0, with Drew O'Connor fanning on a one-time attempt off a return pass from Kiefer Sherwood.

Sherwood cut it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 13:06. He got the rebound of DeBrusk's point shot off of Daccord and put it past the goaltender with a snap shot.

Ben Meyers gave Seattle a 3-1 lead off the rush at 18:13, driving the net on the right side to tip a Ryan Winterton pass over Demko's blocker in tight.

Winterton, along with fellow fourth-line forward Jacob Melanson, who had the secondary assist on Meyers' goal, each extended his point streak to three games. Melanson has three assists in his streak, and Winterton has one goal and two assists during his run.

"'Mel' made a nice play coming out of our own end and then 'Wints' was able to skate it all the way in and made a great play finding me," Meyers said. "We're just focused on playing simple and being hard to play against, and things are working out and we're finding success just doing the simple things right."

DeBrusk, who was a healthy scratch in Seattle on Dec. 29, scored on a backdoor power-play pass off his skate at 19:22 to make it 3-2. It was DeBrusk’s first goal in eight games and his first multipoint game of the season.

“It’s better in a win,” DeBrusk said. “We didn't win. Everyone likes to judge people on points. It's easy to say that when you have a couple points in the game, but we lost.”

Karlsson, who signed a two-year, $4.5 million contract ($2.25 million average annual value) on Friday, swept a rebound under Daccord’s pads with a backhand from the top of the crease to tie it 3-3 at 6:15 of the third period.

“I love to play here,” Karlsson said. “I'm really excited for two more years in the organization. I really appreciate everyone here, and it's a lot of fun to play here, so I'm really excited for the future.”

NOTES: Eberle’s assist extended his point streak to six games (seven points; four goals, three assists). … Vancouver was 4-0 in the shootout, with goalie Kevin Lankinen stopping all 17 shootout attempts this season. … Sherwood has 17 goals, two short of matching his NHL single-season high of 19, set last season.