Kraken Recap
Two teams that lost in overtime 4-3 on Wednesday night went to overtime on Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena tied 3-3. The five minutes wasn’t enough.
In the battle of the somewhat discombobulated, it would be the Seattle Kraken coming out on top of the New York Islanders 4-3 in a shoot-out.
1st Period
The power play festival that the Islanders experienced in Vancouver on Wednesday night, with five goals scored on the man advantage in the game, continued in Seattle.
After a relatively uneventful first couple of minutes, Kraken winger Brandon Tanev took a high sticking penalty during a defensive zone draw at 2:24 and New York made him pay.
Isles captain Anders Lee powered his way to the front of the net, took up position, and redirected a pass from Bo Horvat past Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer for a 1-0 lead.
The Kraken answered efficiently after New York D-man Scott Mayfield went off for delay-of-game at 8:53. Matty Beniers stroked home his 2nd goal of the season from almost the same spot he scored his first last week in Colorado. While cruising into the left wing circle, Beniers ripped a wrister shortside on Semyon Varlamov.
Mayfield wasn’t done in the first period and neither were the Kraken. The big Isles D-man went off again at 16:35 for slashing. With just six seconds remaining on the power play, hard work by Jordan Eberle and Oliver Bjorkstrand in the left wing corner allowed them to win a puck battle and find Alex Wennberg alone in front to pot his 2nd goal of the season and give Seattle a 2-0 lead.
2nd Period
Just after we commented amongst ourselves in the press box about the fact that not a whole lot had happened in the 2nd period, the Islanders took advantage of a bad Kraken line change and tied the hockey game.
Seattle D-man Vince Dunn came off the bench and tried to chase down Isles forward Casey Cizikas to no avail. The Long Islander tied the game 2-2 by going five-hole on Grubauer.
That’s how the period would end, after the Kraken killed off most of a late Yanni Gourde tripping penalty.
3rd Period
Forty-five seconds remained on Gourde’s infraction and Seattle killed it off.
Fifty-five seconds later Dunn took an unnecessary holding call in the neutral zone and the Isles went back on the power play.
This time the Kraken would pay. It took eight seconds on the man advantage for Noah Dobson to rip a shot home from the right point.
A make-up call gave Seattle a power play just a couple of minutes later and Kailer Yamamoto would even things up with a dirty backhand move down low to beat Varlamov.
3-3 with lots of hockey left.
After a long stretch of wide open hockey that didn’t result in significant chances, Yamamoto put himself in the doghouse and the penalty box by taking a hooking penalty 190-feet from his own net. The offensive zone infraction put the Islanders on the power play with 4:39 to play.
The Seattle penalty kill stepped up and crushed it.
Overtime
The Islanders controlled puck possession for most of the first half of overtime before things opened up. Despite some scrambly play, neither team could put together a Grade-A chance.
Shoot-Out
Horvat scored in round two for the Isles.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored in round three to even up the skills competition 1-1 and keep the Kraken alive.
In round six Jordan Eberle scored for the Kraken.
New York’s Oliver Wahlstrom had to score to keep the visitors in it and he did just that.
On we went.
In round-8 Yamamoto buried a wrist shot to put the Kraken one step away.
When Grubauer stopped Dobson, the Kraken won.
Shots on goal finished in favor of the Kraken 32-24. Power plays: New York 2-for-5, Seattle 3-for-4.
Kraken 3 Stars:
1) Kailer Yamamoto – Goal, assist, and the winner in the shoot-out. It more than made up for his 3rd period penalty.
2) Alex Wennberg – A goal, three shots, and won 57% of his face-offs.
3) Philipp Grubauer – Won a shoot-out for the Kraken for the first time this season. Made 21 saves over the 65-minutes.
A Recent Volley:
— Kraken Game Day 18: The Battle Of The Blown Leads
