The Kraken battled hard all night and were rewarded with a 2-1 shoot-out victory over the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Tuesday night, ending Seattle’s three game road losing streak. It was their second shoot-out victory of the season.
1st Period
Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer came back from injury for his first start since December 9th. Ilya Sorokin went for the Islanders.
Forward Tye Kartye replaced Kailer Yamamoto in the line-up, his first game since January 30th. Kartye came in with just one point over his last eight games. D-man Brian Dumoulin was unavailable following his injury on Monday night.
Heavy hitting characterized the first period. Both teams seemed to have an interest in establishing some grit and physicality.
The Kraken looked more like themselves, way more focused than they did the night before in New Jersey, and they’d take advantage first. Matty Beniers broke a scoring drought by notching his 7th goal of the season at the 5:27 mark. The rangy center skated into the right circle and fired a wrister blocker-side past Sorokin.
The Seattle penalty kill stepped up big late in the period, killing off both halves of an Andre Burakovsky double-minor for high sticking.
1-0 Seattle
2nd Period
Hits and blocked shots stood out in the first two minutes of the period at both ends of the ice. The Isles put some sustained pressure on 3-and-a-half minutes in, with three shots in succession from Noah Dobson, Alexander Romanov and Oliver Wahlstrom. They all came off an offensive zone face-off win.
Grubauer looked solid, making a couple more big stops after the midway point.
At 14:02 Kraken forward Yanni Gourde went off for boarding Casey Cizikas. The Islander forward stayed down on the ice for a few moments and saw some medical attention.
New York cashed in on the power play. Kyle Palmieri in front finished a nice feed from behind the net by Matt Barzal. Barzal picked D-man Adam Larsson’s pocket behind the net.
Moments later, young Swedish forward Simon Holmstrom clipped Seattle’s Jordan Eberle in the head with a high stick and the Kraken saw a man advantage.
Seattle failed, at this point 0-for-8 during the current four game road stretch dating back to the game in San Jose on January 30th.
1-1
3rd Period
It was a cautious period between two teams desperate to stay in the meat of their respective wild card races.
Seattle had a great chance nine minutes into the period, but Sorokin robbed Alexander Wennberg on the doorstep.
Seattle came on strong in the final minutes and created a number of solid chances. D-man Jamie Oleksiak a big part of a couple different sequences. No one finished.
Overtime
The two teams that have more post-regulation losses than any others in the NHL (NYI 12, SEA tied with 10) went to the extra session. Make that 13 for the Islanders, although the loss for them wouldn’t happen in the OT.
With 1:49 remaining in the 3-on-3, Palmieri went off for tripping Kraken D-man Vince Dunn. Seattle didn’t click and the advantage was nullified when Jaden Schwartz went off for slashing with 31-seconds left.
Shots on goal ended up in favor of the Kraken 30-26. Power plays: Seattle 0-for-2, New York 1-for-3. The Isles won 63% of the face-offs.
Shoot-Out:
NYI – Wahlstrom: NO – Glove save
SEA – Beniers: NO – Backhand missed
NYI – Horvat: NO – Stick save
SEA – Tatar: YES – Wrister, blocker side
NYI – Barzal: NO – Blocker save
Kraken 3 Stars:
1) Philipp Grubauer – Seattle desperately needed a big night in net and they got it from the returning German.
2) Matty Beniers – Three shots, two hits, and a goal. Played with reckless abandon.
3) Jamie Oleksiak – ‘Big Rig’ was very active offensively. He had five shots on goal while playing the most minutes.
Earlier Kraken:
— Awful At Times, Kraken Lose To Devils 3-1, Lose Dumoulin
— Simmer’s Sunday 9; Kraken Crunch, Canucks Reality, USA Crushed
