Week five was a golden opportunity for the Seattle Kraken to get the season back on track after starting off 4-6-1 and a week four that saw them going 1-2-0. Starting off the week with a road game at Vegas on Tuesday night, then the start of a six game home stretch with Anaheim and then Minnesota coming to town. Unfortunately, the team was unable to get any momentum going and find themselves on a four game slide falling to 4-10-1 and in sole possession of last place in the Pacific Division
Vegas 4-2 Seattle
The game started off well with a rare power play goal for the Kraken scored by Jordan Eberle at the 4:49 mark. The defense and Chris Driedger held strong as Vegas didn’t have a shot on goal until 14 minutes into the first. Alex Pietrangelo scored with 26 seconds left in the period to tie the game up at 1-1. In the second period, both goalkeepers stood strong even with Seattle having two power play opportunities. Yanni Gourde scored his third goal of the season with 31 seconds remaining and the Kraken looked to be heading into the second intermission with momentum, yet Evegenii Dadonov scored 15 seconds later and the game was once again tied up. To start the third period, Reilly Smith scored two goals less than 90 seconds in. Vegas proceeded to tighten up and Seattle struggled to control the puck as time wound down. Driedger was pulled to the bench with over four minutes left, but there wasn’t much Seattle could do to threaten Vegas and the game ended in a 4-2 Golden Knights victory.
Seattle 4-7 Anaheim
Anaheim came into the game on a vastly different trajectory than the Kraken, having won five in a row. The game started off with the Ducks firmly in control of the puck, and Mason McTavish scored off an unfortunate rebound off Grubauer. The Kraken tried to work their way back into the game, yet ended the first period only able to get off four shots compared to Anaheim’s 14. Three minutes into the second period, Troy Terry for Anaheim scored to give them a 2-0 lead. The pace of the game flipped into high gear after a strong hit by Seattle’s Jeremy Lauzon led to a small scuffle and Jaden Schwartz was able to slot a great wrist shot during a breakaway to cut the lead to 2-1. Josh Mahura scored his first of the season for the Ducks at the 6:36 mark, but Jared McCann was able to pull the Kraken back within one about one minute later. Kevin Shattenkirk scored for the Ducks at the 15:36 mark to round out the scoring for the period and the second period ended 4-2 Anaheim leading. The third period picked up right where the second ended, with a back-and-forth game with scoring opportunities for both teams. Seattle took advantage first with Jordan Eberle scoring his eighth goal of the season four minutes in. Hampus Lindholm scored for Anaheim to bring their advantage back to two goals, but Jared McCann was able to pull the Kraken back to within a goal one minute later. Yet it wasn’t meant to be for Seattle as Sam Carrick and Troy Terry scored for Anaheim to seal the 7-4 win.
Seattle 2-4 Minnesota
The first period woes continued into Seattle’s third game of the week. Seattle controlled the puck for the most part, but were unable to threaten Minnesota’s goalkeeper having only 3 shots on net the whole first period. After a hard rebound in the offensive zone, Carson Soucy was the lone man back for Seattle when Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman was able to reach the puck first and find a streaking Rem Pitlick who slotted the puck between Grubauer for his first goal of the season. The second period started off much the same, with Seattle controlling the puck for much of the game but after a hard forecheck, Jared McCann lost the puck on his own blue line and Rem Pitlick was able to take advantage of the opportunity and score again to bring the Wild’s lead to 2-0. In the final minute, Pitlick was once again able to take advantage of a bad turnover and scored his third career goal to complete the hat-trick. Chasing the game once again, Seattle was able to pull back with a power play goal scored by Marcus Johansson at the 9:19 mark. Unable to score again, Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol pulled Grubauer with 5:22 left in the game and almost immediately Minnesota scored to take the 4-1 lead. Alex Winnberg was able to score his second goal of the season for Seattle with less than a minute left in the game, but it was too little, too late.
Team Stats
Jordan Eberle leads the team in points and goals, with twelve and eight respectively. Alex Wennberg leads in assists with nine. Joonas Donskoi currently leads the team in plus/minus rating with +1 and is the only player with a rating above zero. Philipp Grubauer currently holds a 4-7-1 record in net, with a 3.18 Goals Against Average and a .880 Save Percentage. The Kraken have two games next week with Chicago coming into town on Wednesday and Colorado on Friday night.
Northwest Sports Desk 