Kraken let one slip away, 3-2 in OT

The Seattle Kraken will once again have to wait for the first overtime win in the team’s history as Philadelphia’s Ivan Provorov scored with two minutes left in overtime to give the Flyers a 3-2 win over the home team last night at Climate Pledge Arena.

Truth be told, the game never should have gone to overtime.

Facing a Flyer team that was missing seven players with COVID or injuries – the Kraken dominated much of the contest. Seattle’s Jeremy Lauzon looked like he would be the star of the game (not to mention a pretty good story) when he fired home a slap shot at 14:32 of the third period to give Kraken a 2-1 lead. Ironically, Lauzon who hadn’t scored all season had a goal disallowed earlier in the period (5:57) on a similar-looking play.

 On that play, Lauzon fired from about 25 feet out. Mike Yao, who took over as Philly head coach earlier this month, asked for a replay and after a long look on their tablets, the officials ruled that Jaden Schwartz had interfered with Flyers’ goalkeeper Martin Jones. Replays showed that Schwartz did appear to skate into the netminder, but it also looked like defenseman Travis Sandheim pinned him into the net.

Lauzon gave a lot of the credit for his first goal to his defensive partner Adam Larsson, who was just cleared of COVID protocols yesterday morning. “He’s obviously done it (set up the play) before with (Vince) Dunn earlier in the season,” Lauzon said. “The goalie wasn’t set. It’s hard to be happy about your first goal when you lose the game.”

The real back breaker for the Kraken came only 15 seconds after Lauzon’s go-ahead goal (the one that counted). Van Riemsdyk scored for the second time in the contest on a shot from the slot.

Both the Kraken (10-17-4) and the Flyers (13-12-5) hadn’t played a game since Dec. 18 so both teams started slowly. However, the teams wound up swapping power play goals – van Riemsdyk for the Flyers – and Yanni Gourde for the Kraken. Gourde’s goal was set up by a drop pass from Carson Soucy – ironically two players just coming back from COVID.

The second period has been the Kraken’s best this season and last night they dominated the second period outshooting their guests, 12-5, but were unable to score a goal. Joonas Donskoi, who has 14 assists but is still looking for his first goal continues to be frustrated. He appeared to get past Jones at one point, but was unable to tuck the puck into the side of the net.

“I thought we created [scoring] opportunities and defended well,” said Seattle coach Dave Hakstol after the game. “There’s not much different I would want to do after an 11-day layoff. We didn’t get inside enough in the first half of the game. That’s an area we need to improve.”

Hakstol also wasn’t pleased with the breakaway goal that ended the game. “We gave up a breakaway, there’s nothing hidden there. It would be a great time for a timely save on that one.”

The Kraken return to action tonight, when they play their final game of 2021 against the Calgary Flames at Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken and Flames played a couple of times in the pre-season but this will be the team’s first regular season meeting. Seattle’s scheduled game at Calgary (Dec. 23) was postponed due to COVID.

GAME NOTES

• The Kraken’s biggest loss going into last night’s game was forward Brandon Tanev, who will have knee surgery and miss the remainder of the season. One of the team leaders, Tanev also had a team-high three game-winning goals. `Turbo’ was also the team’s best penalty-killing forward although Yanni Gourde, a top penalty killer, returned to the lineup last night.

• With the league halting for a week, the Kraken had players in protocol who didn’t miss any games – defensemen Jamie Oleksiak, Carson Soucy and Adam Larsson. Yanni Gourde and Colin Blackwell who did miss several games, returned to the lineup last night. Players out last night with COVID were forwards Ryan Donato and Mason Appleton along with defenseman Vince Dunn. At yesterday’s practice, some of the players shared their experiences. Colin Blackwell said he was “hit pretty hard for five days.” Oleksiak and Soucy said they were mostly tired and tried to avoid other people.

• * Earlier Wednesday, the league sent a memo to the 32 NHL teams announcing a modified COVID protocol that reduces isolation of certain players from 10 days to five days after a positive test. Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson was the first Seattle player to benefit from the change and participated in the team’s morning skate. The new guidelines require five days of isolation in any positive test case. If the player has a fever, he has to isolate until fever subsides. If the player is asymptomatic or the symptoms are resolving after five days, he can leave isolation and return to practices and games, provided he had a negative test and gets medical clearance from doctors:

• During the first television timeout in the second period of last night’s game, the Kraken recognized former Seattle Post-Intelligencer sportswriter Bill Knight. On Sept. 30, 1964, Knight, now 91, covered the first hockey game played on the current spot of Climate Pledge Arena. The game was the first sporting event at the Seattle Coliseum (converted to a sports and music venue. after serving as a main exhibition hall at the 1962 World’s Fair) an exhibition game between the Western Hockey League Seattle Totems and the three-time defending Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs. While the WHL is now a junior amateur league featuring teams like the Seattle Thunderbirds and the Everett Silvertips, back in 1962 the WHL was a top minor league with teams in Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix. Of course, the NHL had only six teams in those days.

• * Goaltender Carter Hart, a former Everett Silvertips’ netminder, is one of the Flyers currently out with COVID. He was in the nets on Oct. 18 when the Flyers beat the Kraken, 6-1, in Philadelphia.

• Claude Giroux’s assist on James van Riemsdyk’s first goal was the 600 career assist for the ten-year Flyers’ captain. Giroux also moved past Bill Barber into second place on the all-time Flyers’ scoring list with 803 points. The 33-year-old Giroux still has a long way to catch Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke, Philly’s all-time leading scorer with 358 goals and 852 assists for 1,210 total points.

GAME SUMMARY

1^ST Period

P – James van Riemsdyk (Travis Konecny, Claude Giroux) power play, 4:44.

S – Yanni Gourde (Carson Soucy, Morgan Geekie) power play, 12:46.

2^nd Period

No scoring.

3^rd Period

S – Jeremy Lauzon (Adam Larsson, Calle Jarnkrok) 14:32.

P – van Riemsdyk (Rasmus Ristolainen, Travis Sanheim) 14:47.

Overtime

P – Ivan Provokov (Kevin Hayes) 2:14.

Goals/Saves – P: Martin Jones 2-34. S: Philip Grubauer 3-19.

Penalties – Philadelphia – 3-6. Seattle 3-6.

Referees – Ghislain Hebert, Kendrick Nicholson. Linesmen – Kory Nagy, Bevan Mills.