Kraken can’t turn back shots forever, finally fall to Kings in shootout
The L.A. Kings put some wear on Joey Daccord’s glove Saturday night.
Daccord made 36 saves through overtime, plus five more in a 3-2 Kraken shootout loss at Climate Pledge Arena. Kailer Yamamoto, Yanni Gourde and Matty Beniers scored on the Kraken’s third, seventh and eighth shootout attempts, respectively, but the Kings matched it on the next try each time. Carl Grundstrom, the Kings’ ninth player up, scored after Eeli Tolvanen missed and sealed the extra point.
With 2:28 seconds left in regulation, Oliver Bjorkstrand tied the game at 2 on the power play and ensured overtime. The Kraken spent much of the extra period killing a penalty to defenseman Vince Dunn.
The Kraken kept the game tied at 1 for about 24 minutes despite being badly outshot and largely outplayed by the Kings. Anze Kopitar was waiting at the back door to tap in a power-play chance with 2:44 left in the second period and give Los Angeles its first lead.
Seattle was killing off a penalty to Will Borgen, who took exception to a Mikey Anderson hit on teammate Tye Kartye in front of the Kraken bench. Borgen dumped Anderson to the ice a few feet away from an official and was the only one ultimately penalized. Kartye, meanwhile, went and found someone else to jaw at.
That looked like the game’s turning point until Bjorkstrand sent a shot straight through the faceoff circles and into the back of the net. He went down to one knee to celebrate.
Defenseman Ryker Evans earned an assist, his fourth in three games. The 22-year-old was called up to the NHL for the first time Dec. 5.
In his Kraken debut, Tomas Tatar played on the top line with Matty Beniers and Jared McCann and got the nod in the shootout. His bid was stopped.
The Kraken have yet to win more than two consecutive games this season. They sit 10-14-8. Seattle finished a six-game homestand 2-2-2.
According to Statmuse, the Kraken are averaging 14.45 blocked shots per game, which is toward the bottom of the league. That is despite Jamie Oleksiak’s 73 blocked shots, which were tied for sixth in the NHL entering Friday’s slate of games.
They’d reached 14 before the third period, with Oleksiak’s three leading the way. Oleksiak, Kartye, Gourde and Dunn blocked shots while Daccord slid around, fending off chances during a first few minutes that belonged to the Kings.
Adam Larsson appeared in his 300th consecutive NHL game without missing one due to injury. He lobbed a bad-angle puck toward the crease, likely looking for a teammate, but it glanced off a Kings defender and past goaltender Cam Talbot to gave Seattle a 1-0 lead. Regardless of intent, that was the Kraken’s first shot on goal, and it came almost seven minutes in.
L.A.’s Trevor Moore zipped through the slot alone with the puck and went around Daccord to tie it. With one more Daccord save on a Matt Roy slap shot, the Kraken made it to the first intermission deadlocked despite a 14-3 shot differential. It ballooned to 29-9 by the second period break.
They had several chances to go ahead early in the second period. Gourde had two chances off the rush and tried to stuff it just inside the post after the Kraken finished killing their second penalty.