Canucks hold off Kraken for first victory of season

SEATTLE --The Vancouver Canucks held off the Seattle Kraken for their first win of the season, 5-4 at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.

It was the 600th NHL win for coach Bruce Boudreau.
"I haven't been thinking about that since about the third game," Boudreau said. "I just wanted to get the win for the guys and let them feel better. And hopefully, this sort of little streak doesn't happen again on the negative side."
Ilya Mikheyev scored twice, and Elias Pettersson, Andrei Kuzmenko and Conor Garland each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks (1-5-2). Thatcher Demko made 32 saves.
"I mean, there's one guy that deserves it," Vancouver captain Bo Horvat said. "[Boudreau] has had a heck of a coaching career, and we made it hard on him here at the beginning of the season. To get that one for him, it was still a nail-biter to the end for him. I'm sure he was sweating behind the bench there, and it really feels good to get him that one."

Jaden Schwartz had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Eberle had two assists for the Kraken (3-4-2). Martin Jones allowed four goals on 18 shots.
Seattle went 1-for-4 on the power play and 0-for-2 on the penalty kill.
"We were the better team for most of the night, but they beat us on specialty teams by one," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "That was ultimately the difference in the hockey game. Five-on-5, you're not going to be able to carry momentum all night, but we carried momentum for a lot of the night."
Mikheyev gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 4:38 of the first period, scoring short side from in close after Luke Schenn's centering attempt hit Seattle defenseman Justin Schultz near the left post.

Jamie Oleksiak tied it 1-1 at 18:39 on a slap shot that trickled under Demko's left pad. It was Oleksiak's second goal in as many games after scoring once in 72 games last season.
Jared McCann scored for the fourth straight game to put the Kraken ahead 2-1 at 19:44. He converted on a breakaway after being sprung by a touch pass by Yanni Gourde near the blue line.
"We had our chances," Eberle said. "We obviously didn't capitalize on the power play when we needed to."
Mikheyev tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 3:58 of the second period.
Kuzmenko scored another power-play goal to give the Canucks a 3-2 lead at 14:17, but Matty Beniers got behind the defense 15 seconds later at 14:32 and shot glove side on Demko to tie it 3-3.

Pettersson gave Vancouver a 4-3 lead at 1:16 of the third period, swiping in a bouncing puck after Schenn's soft shot toward the net was knocked down by Carson Soucy.
Garland shot into an empty net at 18:35 to push it to 5-3.
"I mean, it's nice to get it out of the way," Pettersson said. "I mean obviously, it took way longer than we hoped for, but it is what it is. We're happy about today, and we just got to reset for tomorrow."
Schwartz cut it to 5-4 with a power-play goal with 30 seconds remaining.
The Kraken then had another chance to tie it, but Andre Burakovsky's last-second shot was blocked by J.T. Miller, who injured his left ankle on the play and needed to be helped off the ice after the buzzer sounded.
"Just to hear that music in the room and know how hard they've practiced," Boudreau said. "They've never given up hope. I know it's only one game, but I mean, the spirit has never been down where we've gone into a game and go, 'Oh, woe is me.' So, I think it was a great reward for them."
NOTES:Boudreau became the second-fastest coach in NHL history to win 600 games (1,049 games), behind Scotty Bowman (1,002). … Mikheyev's goals were his first with the Canucks since signing a four-year contract this offseason. … Eberle's first assist on Beniers' goal was his 600th NHL point. He has 262 goals and 339 assists in 867 games.