Kraken give up 2 late goals, fall 5-4 at Blackhawks as Spokane’s Tyler Johnson scores twice

CHICAGO — Kraken centerman Matty Beniers paused momentarily in his team’s quiet, losing dressing room before answering a query about whether the second-year club has more to offer than what it’s produced.

It was a fair question given the sub-.500 squad has frittered away some winnable games early, including Sunday’s 5-4 loss to a Chicago Blackhawks team it really needs to beat if hoping to escape the NHL’s bottom rungs. A tying second period goal by Beniers seemed to steady his team enough after a late lapse in the opening frame, but then some costly mistakes in the final seven minutes again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

“I think we’re playing well and we just need to close out games,” Beniers said after the Kraken fell to 2-3-2. “We were in the same situation with Anaheim (in the season opener) and let that one slip away. Same with this one. We’re playing well. I think we’ve just need to be more consistent and put together a full 60 minutes.

“We’re starting to form a real team identity,” he added. “You can see guys starting to get a real chemistry with each other out there and so that’s great to see. We’ve just got to close it out.”

The chemistry between Beniers and linemate Jaden Schwartz was evident on a tying goal for the Kraken at the 52-second mark of the middle period, which came just 19 seconds after the Blackhawks had surged ahead following a truly forgettable sequence by the visitors. Schwartz had done the hard work containing a puck behind Chicago’s net, then shoveled it back to Beniers for the easy shot into a net partially vacated by Blackhawks netminder Alex Stalock.

That made it 3-3 and a go-ahead goal by Vince Dunn midway through the period looked for a while as if it would help the Kraken overcome prior lapses in a game they’d completely controlled early on. But Spokane native Tyler Johnson scored his second of the contest with just more than seven minutes to play and Jason Dickinson put Chicago back in front to stay just 13 seconds later, denying the Kraken their second straight road win following an upset victory in Colorado on Friday.

The Kraken have been plagued by lapses since the season began, allowing spans of mere minutes, sometimes seconds, to undermine the rest of their performance. Their third period letdown followed another one late in the opening frame that allowed Chicago back into it after it looked as if they’d be run out of the rink.

Early goals by Jared McCann and Andre Burakovsky by the 7:31 mark of the first period had the Kraken up 2-0 and looking for more while successfully moving the puck around on a power play late in the frame. But then Dunn turned the puck over and an ensuing odd-man rush the other way resulted in former Kraken forward Colin Blackwell passing it across to Jujhar Khaira for a goal that got the home team on the board.

Then, with just 52 seconds to go in the period, Kraken goalie Martin Jones — in for the injured Philipp Grubauer — stopped an initial power play shot by Seth Jones. But the puck went straight to Johnson, who fired it into a vacated left side of the net to tie the game.

Burakovsky then took a penalty just four seconds before intermission and Max Domi would put the Blackhawks ahead 32 seconds into the middle period off a rebound. Kraken coach Dave Hakstol had spoken earlier this trip about lapses hurting otherwise solid team efforts and was none too pleased with the three Chicago goals within just 3:28 of playing time.

Nor was he thrilled about his team failing to maintain another late lead after improving on some of the mistakes made the opening two periods.

“It was a disappointing loss,” Hakstol said. “We did a lot of things that will end up getting you beat on the road. You can look at our performance on faceoffs and specialty teams, including a short-handed goal that really feeds them and gives them life in this hockey game.”

The Kraken finished 0-for-4 on the power play, yielded the two goals on the penalty kill and couldn’t finish off a number of chances to restore the two-goal advantage before Chicago’s third period flurry. The Blackhawks have surprised some teams in the early going — scoring an impressive four short-handed goals already — but sold off a number of talented players this summer and are expected to be a “lottery” contender for a No. 1 overall draft pick.

That’s certainly not in the same realm as expected playoff contender Los Angeles, Colorado, Vegas, Carolina and St. Louis squads the Kraken just faced consecutively while emerging with a .500 record intact. Instead, as they did with predicted non-contender Anaheim, they failed to win a game they led late and pad their record before returning home.

“A couple of critical mistakes and that’s all it takes in this one,” Hakstol said. “It was that type of game.”

Johnson being left alone in the slot on his tying third period goal was one of them. He took a Jonathan Toews pass from behind the net and wristed it behind Jones with 7:03 to go.

Then, off the ensuing faceoff, Dickinson got a quick snapper away from the right faceoff circle that seemed to catch Jones off-guard.

“We’ve got to stay on the gas,” Kraken winger McCann said. “There’s no easy way to put it. We let off and they’ve got players that can make plays. Obviously with (Patrick) Kane and Toews and those guys, they’ve been here a long time. So, we can’t let up on a team.”