Kraken rally but can’t close the gap in loss to the Hurricanes
RALEIGH, N.C. – Philipp Grubauer made 36 saves and held the Seattle Kraken in it until they mounted a comeback, but a three-goal deficit was too much to overcome in Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Goaltender Martin Jones was the first off the ice after morning skate and coach Dave Hakstol confirmed he was in net. But when game time arrived, Jones settled in the tunnel to the visitors’ locker room while Grubauer did the honors.
Midway through the game, Carson Soucy took a shot through traffic and whoever tipped it past Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov, from Carolina or Seattle, initially was anyone’s guess. Ryan Donato looked pretty sure, though, and he was right. It was announced as his goal.
Daniel Sprong had come close several times already. He accepted the puck from Brandon Tanev at the blue line and his shot leaked under Kochetkov’s pads to get the Kraken within a goal midway through the third period. They never found the equalizer.
The first and third Carolina goals were one-on-one duels. On the first, the Kraken collectively whiffed taking the puck out of the defensive zone and Andrei Svechnikov, the Hurricanes’ leading goal-scorer, found himself with a partial breakaway.
Carolina’s third came on a penalty shot, after Stefan Noesen was slashed at during a breakaway. Noesen went bar-down for a 3-0 lead. Seattle has allowed goals on both penalty shot attempts in its short history.
In between, Derek Stepan turned it around quickly for the Hurricanes, dipped through the neutral zone and took possession again, sending a shot whistling over Grubauer’s glove.
The Kraken were outshot badly throughout the game. What looked to be one of the few times the Kraken forced Hurricanes goaltender Kochetkov to scramble in the first half of the game turned out to be a shot on himself. The puck kicked slowly back to Kochetkov and he swiped it into his leg pads and before Sprong could pounce.
Kochetkov shut down Sprong again on the next play.