Nothing wrong with a little ‘old time hockey’ between the Seattle Kraken and Vancouver Canucks, in a game eventually won by the road team 5-4. It served as Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau’s 600th career NHL coaching victory.
One could feel it coming. A desperate, winless Canucks club skating into a building against a confident Kraken crew looking to defend its home ice. Seattle lost all four regular season matches to Vancouver in their inaugural season.
Canucks JT Miller hurt blocking a shot in final seconds. No details yet …
Both teams showed some guts and glory, combining a physical approach with some creativity. The Canucks took advantage of some good bounces against a Kraken team that failed to keep the good times rolling after Tuesday’s victory over the Buffalo Sabres.
The game started with fights; the BC Boys trying to prove their mettle and their cohesiveness by dropping the mitts twice in the first five minutes. Tanner Pearson of Vancouver and Adam Larsson ‘went’, followed moments later by JT Miller of the Canucks and Carson Soucy dropping the mitts.
By the time the dust settled, the Kraken remarkably had a 2-1 lead after one period. Not remarkable in that they didn’t deserve it, just in the fact that both goals came in the final minute after trailing one-nothing. Jamie Oleksiak and Jared McCann, his fourth staight game with a goal, lit the lamp for the Kraken.
Ilya Mikheyev’s goal that opened the game’s scoring for the Canucks came on a fortuitous bounce. The puck ended up on his stick in a prime scoring position, allowing him to swipe it past Kraken goalie Martin Jones.
It was an omen.
Non-Kraken Bounces
Skip ahead to the game winner in the third. Tied 3-3, Elias Pettersson was able to bat a deflected puck out of midair past Jones while cruising through the slot. Tough luck for the Kraken. The home team had come from behind twice earlier to tie things up and at one point take a lead.
Special teams, as is often the case, once again stood out. Vancouver finished 2-for-2 while Seattle went 1-for-4.
Vancouver’s Conor Garland scored an empty-netter with his team up 4-3 that oddly ended up being the game winner as Seattle scored a power play goal with 30-seconds remaining to cut the lead to one.
The Canucks finally earn a win and the Kraken’s see-saw start to the season continues. The Seattle lads remain winless against their rivals to the north.
