For some of the younger Seattle Kraken fans, last night’s contest between the Kraken and the Los Angeles Kings might be a game they’ll tell their grandchildren about some day.
The Kraken’s Andre Burakovsky scored a power play goal at 2:08 of the overtime period to give Seattle a 9-8 victory over the Kings last night at Crypto.com Arena in as wild-and-wooly a game as the final score would indicate.
Heading into the contest, the Kraken hoped to win their sixth consecutive game, a new team record, but they also set a few other team records in the process. Seattle’s nine goals was a new team record (the old mark lasted less than a week as the Kraken scored eight goals against San Jose last Wednesday night) and three Kraken tallied two goals – Burakovsky, Matty Beniers and Jared McCann.
The two team’s even set a National Hockey League record – the game was tied on six different occasions.
“It’s not a formula that anybody wants to duplicate, but we did get two points out of it,” said Seattle coach Dave Hakstol. “It’s the end of a long divisional run here (the Kraken have won five division games in the last two weeks). We get a day off tomorrow. We get to clear our heads,””
“It was an awful game for both teams;” said Burakovsky, no doubt referring to the defensive play of both squads.
The Kraken improve to 14-6-1 and lead the third-place Kings (12-9-4) by three points in the Pacific Division standings. Seattle finishes a brief three-game road trip with a 3-0 sweep of divisional opponents – Vegas, Anaheim and LA – and have won their last six division games. The Kraken went 10-1-1 in November.
Things started oddly enough, when the Kings scored 16 seconds into the game, recording a goal before any Kraken player had control of the puck. LA’s Kevin Fiala (four assists) was alone in front and Seattle defenseman Adam Larsson knocked the puck off his stick. But Kings’ captain Anze Kopitar pounced on the loose disc and fired one past Martin Jones, who has now beaten the team he started his NHL career with, 22 times.
Beniers who’s on a torrid scoring pace (12 points in his last five games), tied the game on a power play goal at 5:25. He passed ahead to Alex Wennberg, but kept driving to the net and sent home Wenneberg’s rebound.
Seattle took the lead two minutes later when Jordan Eberle centered a pass to McCann, who got off a shot in front of the net with lightning speed. Eberle would finish the night with four assists, including Burakovsky’s game-winner and McCann would score again to become the first Kraken to reach double figures with 10 goals (McCann had a team-high 27 goals a year ago).
The teams swapped goals with neither club taking more than a one-goal lead. The Kraken took a two-goal lead, 7-5, when Darren Sprong and Oliver Bjorkstrand both scored unassisted goals within two minutes. Both intercepted errant passes, indicative of the defensive woes LA suffered throughout the contest. Bjorkstrand’s goal came at 9:20 of the second period meaning that 12 goals were scored before the game was half over.
There actually were some good saves in the game. On an LA power play, Jones robbed Viktor Arvidsen standing alone in front of the net. The Kraken successfully killed the penalty, but moments after Seattle returned to full strength, Gabe Vilardi scored his second goal of the game.
The Kraken would still take a two-goal lead to the intermission. Burakovsky scored his first goal of the night on a shot through a screen in the period’s final minutes to make it 8-6.
After an NHL season high of eight goals in the second period, things were somewhat normal in the third . The Kings tied the game, 8-8, with two goals from defenseman Sean Durzi and Mikey Anderson.
Both teams had chances to win in regulation. Between the two LA goals, Smith stopped the Kings’ Arthur Kaliyev on a breakaway. The Kraken’s Ryan Donato had a chance to win the game in regulation but Cal Peterson, who relieved Jonathan Quick in goal after the fifth Seattle goal, made a sprawling save. That might have been the only noteworthy stop by an LA netminder all night.
The refs appeared to put the whistles away in the final period, pretty much letting everything go, but the Kings were called for having too many men on the ice in OT, giving the Kraken a man advantage. Burakovsky sent everyone home with a shot thru a screen, his second goal and the fourth power play goal of the contest.
“I got the puck in a good area, and I’ll take that shot from there all day,” Burakovsky said. “‘Ebs’ (Eberle) made a really good play, and it went in.”
“End of the day, it was one of those games where last shot wins, and that’s exactly what happened,” Hakstol said. “It’s better to be on the winning side and the good side of it than the other, but it’s a crazy hockey game.”
The Kraken will have to tighten up defensively tomorrow night when they begin a three-game homestand against the Washington Capitals and the mighty Alex Ovechkin. The 37-year old Ovechkin now has 793 career goals behind only Wayne Gretzky (894) and Gordie Howe (801).
GAME NOTES
- Justin Schultz was an unsung hero for the Kraken assisting on the first three goals. Schultz now has seven assists in his last four games.
- It’s unlikely the Kraken would have won a shootout like last night’s game a season ago. The three players Seattle picked up in the off-season to improve its offense – Burakovsky, Bjorkstrand and Schultz have combined for 15 goals, 36 assists and 51 points.
- The Kings are the first team to play the Kraken three times this season. Seattle had its first win of the season at LA, then beat the Kings in their 100th game ever on Jordan Eberle’s overtime goal. Jared McCann scored his 100th career goal in that game. The team’s play their final regular season game, Apr. 1 in Seattle.
- Morgan Geekie was out of the lineup after a collision with teammate Adam Larsson on Sunday night. Karson Kuhlman replaced Geekie in the lineup. Ryan Donato moved to center on a line with Kuhlman and Darren Sprong. Geekie has the best percentage of goals per minutes played in the NHL this season.
- The best example of what a crazy game this was may have come with about 4:42 remaining. The Kings’ Kevin Fiala cross-checked Bjorkstrand and about five players came together In a mini-scrum in front of the bench. However, the rest of the players moved up the ice and continued play and the officials never stopped play (even though the linesmen were separating the potential combatants). However, the clock stopped for a few seconds. When the Kings went offside to stop play with eight seconds remaining, the off-ice officials let the clock run out to make up for the previous clock stoppage.
- The Kraken have only lost one game in regulation since Oct. 27 when they lost to Vancouver, 3-1, at home. The Kraken’s only November loss came at home to Minnesota, 2-0, Nov. 11.
SCORING SUMMARY
First Period
LA- Anze Kopitar (Kevin Fiala, Drew Doughty) :16. S- Matty Beniers (Alex Wennberg, Justin Schultz) PPG 5:21 S- Jared McCann (Jordon Eberle, Schultz) 8:22 LA- Viktor Arvidsson (Sean Durzi) PPG 9:16. S- Wennberg (Darren Sprong, Schultz) PPG 12:55 LA- Gabe Vilardi (Fiala, Doughty) PPG 18:52.
Second Period
S- Beniers (Eberle) 1:31. LA- Carl Grundstrom (Blake Lizotte, Sean Walker) 6:45 S- McCann (Adam Larsson, Eberle) 4:56. LA- Adrian Kempe (Fiala) 6:45 S- Daniel Sprong (unassisted) 7:27 S- Oliver Bjorkstrand (unassisted) 9:50 LA- Vilardi (Kopitar, Mikey Anderson) 15:41 S- Andre Burakovsky (Wennberg, Will Borgen) 19:38.
Third Period
LA- Sean Durzi (Matt Roy, Kevin Fiala) 11:36 LA- Anderson (Kempe, Doughty) 11:36.
Overtime
S- Burakovsky (Eberle, Dunn) PPG 2:08.
Referees- Chris Rooney, Jake Brenk. Linesmen- Ryan Galloway, Jonathan Deschamps
Three stars- 1 Kevin Fiala, LA. 2 Matty Beniers, S. 3. Anze Kopitar, LA
