Kraken Struggle Defending Power Play, Drop Preseason Finale 4-3 to Canucks

Not able to muster late magic as they did the night before, the Seattle Kraken finished the preseason 3-1, falling to the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.

Overall, Lane Lambert’s group looked solid, jumping out to an early two-goal lead. But a Ryan Winterton penalty gave the Canucks a late power play, which they capitalized on.

Mackie Samoskevich, who took a big hit on Thursday night, missed the game with a day-to-day upper-body injury. With players moving up the lineup as a result, Oscar Fisker-Mølgaard drew into his fourth preseason game on the bottom line. He might have beat out Curtis Douglas and Ben Meyers for the 13th forward roster spot, but that decision will be made official with the roster moves this week.

The Kraken got an early power play goal from Brandon Montour, his second of the preseason. Across the two games with the Kraken bonafide NHL’ers, the team went 1-of-4 on the power play. Bobby McMann continued his goal scoring ways as well, helping the Kraken build a 2-0 lead.

“It’s only been a week, but I like our movement,” Montour said of the team’s power play unit. “I like the chemistry so far… As we keep going, we can only get better.”

Later in the first, the Canucks grabbed their first power play goal. Elias Pettersson tied the game in the second period after he got a quick shot off from the slot, erasing the early advantage for the away team.

20-year-old Berkly Catton got his first goal of the preseason to retake the lead. His line with Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton (in place of Kaapo Kakko who moved up to the first line) looked strong and improved defensively from last game.

But the Canucks tied it again on the power play from Zeev Buium. Then, late in the period Marcus Pettersson flattened Wright with a hip check. It was a clean hit, but Winterton took exception and went after the defenseman.

“We got a tightknit group in here this year,” Catton said. “I think you can see that from the Calgary game, what [Winterton] did in this game. We’re really excited and can’t wait to keep going .. Every guy in this room would do that.”

While Catton defended his teammate’s actions, it still set up the Canucks with a power play, and they converted again with just 97 seconds remaining. The Kraken allowed goals on 3-of-5 Vancouver power plays, far from the efficiency they will be looking for in the regular season. Joey Daccord finished with 26 saves on 30 shots, playing well away from power play chances, providing a clear area for Montour and company to clean up before the season opener on October 1.

“I think we’ve seen here what we need to fix, what we need to change,” Montour offered. “We got a couple days here to figure it out.”