Little goes right for road-weary Kraken as Stars even series with Game 2 win

DALLAS – By the time they’d yielded a playoff-high 19 shots in the second period alone, the Kraken looked very much like a team anxious to get itself off the road.

The energetic spark that had produced three consecutive playoff away victories, including in Tuesday’s second-round series opener here at American Airlines Center, was missing in action Thursday night as the hometown Stars took it to the visitors early and often. And though the Kraken played things more evenly in the third period, this 4-2 loss had them running around in their own end throughout, getting dominated in the faceoff circle and taking too many borderline penalties that set them on their heels.

Jordan Eberle went upstairs on Jake Oettinger from in close range in the final four minutes to get the Kraken within two and enable them to pull goalie Philipp Grubauer for an extra attacker. But the Kraken could get no closer.

The Dallas victory evened the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal at 1-1 with Game 3 shifting to Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday night after both teams get an extra day off. For the Kraken, who’ve been home just two days out of the last nine, it should be a welcome chance to get some tired-looking legs back under them.

Wyatt Johnston opened the scoring just seconds after one such penalty to Carson Soucy had expired. Then Joe Pavelski would later cash in his fifth goal in fewer than five periods played this series while also on the power play with Will Borgen off as the dastardly second period ticked down.

Evgenii Dadonov also scored that frame to give Dallas a 2-0 lead before Tye Kartye got the Kraken on the board with a pinpoint wrist shot from the left circle. Kartye had started his shift by drilling a Stars player off his feet before finishing it with a goal that briefly gave his team some life.

But Pasvelski’s goal, jamming a rebound past Grubauer, restored the two-goal lead by intermission and completed a 20-minute display of dominance by Dallas that showed it still quite capable of winning this series. The Stars outshot the Kraken 19-9 in the period and would have overwhelmed them on the scoreboard if not for Grubauer’s continued acrobatics in net.

Tyler Seguin added a fourth Dallas goal on a net front deflection with nine minutes to play in the third.

Grubauer had kept things scoreless in the opening period when another late Kraken penalty taken by Soucy led to a barrage of Dallas shots in an otherwise tightly played frame. While the Stars outshot the Kraken 11-5 that period, three of the shots came on the late power play followed by two more right after it expired that Grubauer looked spectacular in stopping.

His best saves were a kick-stop of a one-timed Max Domi slapper on the power play, followed by a denial on a Dadonov wraparound try similar to the one he later scored on. That followed at even strength when Grubauer somehow kept his eye on a point shot that changed direction big time when Roope Hintz deflected it from about 18 feet out.

But Grubauer couldn’t do it all – especially once the Kraken allowed Dallas forwards to go to the net seemingly at will. All four goals by the Stars were scored from close-in, two off rebounds, one on the wraparound and another on a deflection.

The Kraken, meanwhile, had a couple of early scoring chances with the game still scoreless. Eberle had the biggest, working the puck forward on a 2-on-1 break and carrying it all the way through by himself before Oettinger stopped him on a last-second deke try.

Moments later, the Kraken had another chance from the high slot, but the puck was fired wide. It was mostly downhill from that point onward as the rink and momentum seemed to tilt one-sidedly in the Stars’ favor.