After dropping Wednesday’s contest against the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 in overtime, The Seattle Kraken rebounded on Thursday evening with an impressive 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. It was a very back-and-forth style game between these two pacific teams. Ultimately, the Kraken’s effort put them ahead of a Kings team with some real talent. There were times in this game when the Kings looked sharper of the two groups, but the Kraken just stayed alive. Seattle Kraken backup goaltender Martin Jones was between the pipes for the team’s first victory and certainly impressed. Perhaps a situation to monitor as we move forward with hockey in Seattle.
In the opening period, the Seattle Kraken found themselves leading again early. A nifty play by newly signed forward Andre Burakovsky found forward Jordan Eberle, who played one on goal for forward Jaden Schwartz to finish the rebound. Another power-play goal by Seattle to start the game which was the team’s fourth power-play goal already this season. Just over two minutes later, the Los Angeles Kings tied it up. A turnover by Kraken defenseman Jamie Oleksiak on the penalty kill led to an Alex Iafallo wrap-around that Martin Jones couldn’t even react to. After the Kings leveled the game, they started to hit their stride, firing chances in the offensive zone that Martin Jones denied.
In the middle frame of this game, Seattle forward Brandon Tanev tucked one by Jonathan Quick. Just over six minutes into the second frame, A lucky chance in front after a beautiful spin play in tight from the corner by Tanev found the back of the goal. This was Brandon Tanev’s first regular season goal since last season before tearing his ACL. The Kraken started to carry momentum as we got closer to the middle frame. A few high-danger chances almost found their way behind the Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, but he was sharp in this one. Around the thirteen-minute mark of the second, Seattle Kraken forward Alex Wennberg scored just as the power play expired. A wonderfully worked power play again by the Kraken almost saw them go five for their first ten to open the season, but they were a second too late. Matty Beniers played a pass down low for Wennberg to turn on, making no mistake with it. The Kraken finished out the period still being outshot 17-13 but remained the squad with the better of the chances. Jones did well to finish the middle frame making the initial saves and not giving up to many major rebounds.
In the third period of this one, it was routinely quiet, A pace of play you wouldn’t expect from a Kings team trailing by two in the third. However, that all changed once some penalties started to get called. Seattle was given a power play early in the third thanks to a penalty by Kings defenseman Drew Doughty for slashing. The Kraken couldn’t convert and later found themselves on the penalty kill. Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn took a hooking penalty less than one minute into the power-play. Neither side could convert on the man advantage as we got back to even strength. As we got closer to the mid-way mark of the third period, the Los Angeles Kings found themselves in a tough spot. After already being called for a slash in the third period while trailing, the Kings took two penalties in the span of six seconds. Kings forwards Alex Iafallo and Arthur Kaliyev were both penalized for hooking. The Kraken generated lots of chances, but the strong play of Jonathan Quick kept the Kings in this one late. As we got to the closing minutes of this one, Seattle Kraken forward Brandon Tanev took a two-minute cross-checking penalty. In a two-goal game with just over a couple minutes to go, the Los Angeles Kings decided to pull their goalie for the extra attacker making this Kraken penalty-kill a six-on-four. After some solid saves by Martin Jones, Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson iced the game by hitting the empty net to give Seattle their fourth goal in this one. The Kraken are now 1-0-1 heading into their home opener on Saturday night in Seattle vs. the Golden Knights.
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