Seattle Kraken, Ryan Donato

Kraken 5, Blues 2 – Focus And Confidence Exudes

Pregame

For the second straight home game the Seattle Kraken benefit from having an opponent roll into Climate Pledge Arena on the 2nd-half of a back-to-back. Sunday night the Winnipeg Jets came in directly off a 5-1 win in Vancouver against the Canucks the night before, only to cough up a lead and lose to the Kraken 3-2.

Deja vu? The St. Louis Blues pop down for Tuesday’s game coming off a 5-1 win over the Canucks in Vancouver on Monday night.

We shall see.

An added dynamic is the fact that Blues leading scorer Jordan Kyrou will miss the game after taking a cheap hit very late in the contest in Vancouver from Canucks defenseman Kyle Burroughs. Earlier in the evening Kyrou had completed his first career hat trick. He leads St. Louis with 16 goals and 32 points.

1st Period

Despite the sloppy weather, the Kraken crowd was on time and energetic.

Each team hit a post during their respective early power play chances.

The Kraken compiled some Grade-A chances in the period while out-shooting the Blues 10-6, but none dirtier than the actual goal scored by Ryan Donato. Just plain naughty.

1-0 Seattle – Even Strength – Ryan Donato (7) from Adam Larsson and Morgan Geekie, 16:27

Donato took a stretch pass up the middle of the ice from Larsson, flew in and undressed Thomas Greiss with a deke.

2nd Period

2-0 Seattle – Even Strength – Carson Soucy (2) from Will Borgen and Alexander Wennberg, 10:00

Jumping into the play and passing a scramble near the left post, Soucy reached out and poked in a loose puck.

3-0 Seattle – Even Strength – Daniel Sprong (8) from Morgan Geekie and Brandon Tanev, 16:58

Geekie made a quick half-blind stretch pass from the center-ice boards to find a streaking ‘Spronger’.

4-0 Seattle – Even Strength – Jared McCann (15) Unassisted, 19:16

Below the goal line near the left post, McCann banked one in off Greiss’s pad as the goalie re-positioned.

The Kraken were the livelier team and their confidence seemed to grow exponentially as the 2nd period wore on.

3rd Period

5-2 Seattle – Even Strength (Empty netter) – Brandon Tanev (5) from Jaden Schwartz and Vince Dunn, 15:47

Self explanatory: The Kraken worked the puck up ice and Tanev found himself all alone skating towards the empty net.

No goals for the Kraken before Tanev’s empty-netter after the Blues had attempted a bit of a comeback.

Six or seven Kraken to choose from for the list below …

“Simmer in 60” Postgame
Kraken 3 Stars:

1) Adam Larsson – Started the scoring with his stretch pass to Donato. Led the team in ice time and finished plus-3.

2) Morgan Geekie – The 4th line factored in again. Geekie finished with two assists in just over 10-minutes of ice time.

3) Brandon Tanev – Yes it was an empty-netter, but Tanev had an assist with that goal and was a catalyst.

Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.