It wasn’t always the most exciting match, but the Seattle Kraken earned an important victory against one of the NHL’s top six teams, as rookie netminder Joey Daccord picked up his first NHL shut-out against the Florida Panthers.
1st Period
After a brief opening Kraken forecheck, the ice quickly tilted in favor of the Panthers.
Seattle goalie Joey Daccord’s biggest save came on an odd-man rush that led to Florida D-man Aaron Ekblad cutting in alone on net. Daccord kicked out the right pad to make the last second save. The play started with a bad pinch by Kraken D-man Brian Dumoulin.
The Kraken’s third shot of the period and only real scoring chance came with three minutes remaining from Kailer Yamamoto in on top of Sergei Bobrovsky. The Florida netminder was able to fend him off through a scramble.
Shots in the less than scintillating period ended up 9-3 in favor of the Panthers.
2nd Period
Seattle came out with plenty of energy and took advantage of an elongated shift between the clubs’ 4th lines.
Kraken D-man Will Borgen sprung Kailer Yamamoto on a breakaway and the speedy Spokane native made no mistake with a deke on Bobrovsky. The goal gave Seattle just its second lead in a game since November 22nd.
Shortly after the Kraken faced back-to-back shorthanded situations, with both Vince Dunn and Dumoulin going off for high sticking. Seattle killed off both, running their successful penalty kill streak to 14 in a row.
Seattle earned its first man advantage of the game at 11:46. Bobrovsky robbed Yanni Gourde with a left pad save on the doorstep to keep it a one-goal game.
1-0 Kraken
3rd Period
The Kraken controlled most of the first five minutes, had scoring chances in traffic, and had the crowd chanting.
It continued right up through an offensive zone faceoff with 14-minutes remaining. That’s when Pierre Edouard Bellemare won the draw in the left wing circle and potted just his third goal of the season on a beautiful feed from behind the net by Ryker Evans. The assist was the rookie’s first National Hockey League point. 2-0 Seattle.
A few minutes later Alex Wennberg and his line, on “Wennberg bobblehead night” no less, were rewarded for their yeomen defensive work matching up on Aleksander Barkov’s top Florida line all evening. A flat-footed Florida unit got caught up ice on a Seattle break-out and Wennberg made them pay on an odd-man rush. He held the puck and ripped it from the left circle, short-side just inside the post to extend the lead.
Florida appeared to be conserving energy over the final minutes of the period as the Kraken almost cashed in on two or three more Grade-A scoring chances. “Bob’ held his ground in net.
Eeli Tolvanen golfed home an empty-netter for the final margin.
4-0 Seattle
Shots finished in favor of the Panthers 24-23. Power plays: Florida 0-for-3, Seattle 0-for-1
Kraken 3 Stars:
1) Joey Daccord – Made 24 saves for his first NHL shut-out.
2) Kailer Yamamoto – Goal, assist, two shots.
3) Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Goal, assist, won more than 80% of his face-offs. Four shots on goal.
Earlier:
— Florida head coach Paul Maurice calls Seattle GM Ron Francis the smartest hockey mind he knows …
