Two teams with speed to burn, the Kraken and Red Wings played an entertaining match at Little Caesar’s Arena on Tuesday night with the visitors skating away with a somewhat miraculous 5-4 overtime victory. The Kraken made it tough on themselves, blowing a 3-1 lead in the 3rd-period only to win the game on a Jordan Eberle goal with less than five seconds remaining in overtime.
Kraken 1st Period
Detroit jumped out of the gate with four shots-on-goal in the first minute of action, including one from former Kraken winger Daniel Sprong. At the end of that flurry, Detroit forward Joe Veleno fired wide of an open net. Seattle was very fortunate not to be down 1-0 in the first 59-seconds.
The shots continued to pile up, but the Grade-A chances didn’t. The best opportunities belonged to the Red Wings, but Kraken goalie Joey Daccord was there with answers.
He robbed Detroit captain Dylan Larkin on a breakaway with 6:25 remaining in the period and denied former Tri-City American Michael Rasmussen’s wrister three minutes later.
There was some chippy behavior along the way, most notably Seattle center Matty Beniers getting involved with a much larger lad in Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider. The two swung at one another but only went off for roughing minors.
The only power play of the period belonged to Detroit on a late Eberle holding call and the Red Wings failed to score, with the impressive Seattle penalty killing percentage moving well above 90% on the season.
The Red Wings gave away the puck seven times in the first 20-minutes compared to zero giveaways for the Kraken. Despite that, shots on goal were even 11-11.
2nd Period
Just 1:07 into the stanza the Red Wings took advantage of another early flurry. This time Veleno was able to deflect home an Olli Maatta shot from the left circle. 1-0 Detroit.
Not long after, Seattle defenseman Justin Schultz went off for interference and the outstanding PK would be put to a test at a crucial time.
Again, they’d answer.
Not only would the PK move to 17 of 18 on the season, but the club would ride the momentum from the success. Kraken legs got lighter, the offense picked up, a power play was earned, and at 5:15 Jaden Schwartz back-handed a rebound past goalie Ville Husso to tie matters at one.
After a sloppy stretch, Seattle did its best to take command.
With 2:06 remaining, Schwartz would step into a slapper from the right wing circle on a 2-on-1 rush and beat Husso to give the Kraken the lead.
With 56-seconds remaining, Seattle defenseman Brian Dumoulin would find Tye Kartye at the Detroit blueline with a long stretch pass, the rookie controlled it, skated in and buried a wrister on the breakaway for a 3-1 lead after two periods.
3rd Period
It didn’t take long to increase the tension level.
With Eberle off for tripping at 1:20, Daccord was quickly forced to make back-to-back saves on Red Wings slappers. Moments later, Detroit defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere capitalized to make it a 3-2 game at the 2:10 mark.
Uh oh.
Seattle’s Devin Shore, seeing his first NHL action of the season with the injury to Andre Burakovsky, got caught a step behind, reached around and got his stick up and cut Red Wings forward Christian Fischer. Shore went off for a high sticking double-minor.
Detroit scored on the power play again. Dylan Larkin, who won the offensive zone face-off leading to the previous goal, won another one and would tie the game himself with his 4th tally of the season.
The Seattle penalty kill was coming back down to Earth and the Detroiters had tied it 3-3 in what seemed like a blink of the eye.
They weren’t done … as in Seattle taking penalties and Detroit taking advantage.
This time it was Alex Wennberg going off for holding and the NHL’s leading scorer Alex Debrincat putting the Red Wings on top 4-3 at 10:26.
Ticky tocky went the clock.
The Kraken earned a couple of late power play opportunities and they’d cash in on the latter one. Larkin went to the box, Daccord hurried to the bench for the extra attacker to make it a 6-on-4 and Jared McCann scored to tied the game 4-4 with 1:22 remaining.
Overtime:
Remarkably, for the first 4:55 of the 5:00 session, there was some back and forth and no shots on goal. That includes Lucas Raymond hitting the post (not a shot on goal) with 20-seconds remaining. The Kraken stormed back and Eberle ended it with just under five seconds on the clock.
Shots on goal finished in favor of Seattle, 36-27. Power plays: Kraken 2-for-5, Red Wings 3-for-6.
Kraken 3 Stars:
1) Jaden Schwartz – Two goals for the veteran on a team leading five shots.
2) Joey Daccord – The puck hit the twine behind him often enough, but he kept the Kraken in it early and most of the damage was on the Detroit power play.
3) Jordan Eberle – The veteran makes up for taking two penalties by scoring the game winner in overtime.
Earlier:
— Kraken Game Day 7: Hot Wings, Daccord And Line-Up
— Simmer’s Sunday 9: Lights Out, ‘Lifeless’ Kraken, McDavid Hurt?
