Kraken Snap Skid with Shootout Win Against Vegas
SEATTLE — It looked like the same story.
The Vegas Golden Knights executed a 4-on-2 rush, finished off by Brett Howden just 1:11 into the third period at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday to put the Seattle Kraken down 3-1.
After losing 10 of their past 11 games, including five straight in regulation entering Thursday, the Kraken’s playoff hopes are only alive in a minute mathematical sense. Crumbling down the stretch, unable to find the urgency needed to string together positive results, Seattle could only be expected to pack it in once again.
However, after Berkly Catton benefited from a fortuitous bounce to cut it to 3-2, Bobby McMann tied the game midway through the third period. The Kraken played through an eventful overtime period before Matty Beniers and Catton scored in the shootout to lift Seattle to a 4-3 win.
Despite lamenting his team’s lack of execution and effort for the past couple weeks of losing, Kraken coach Lane Lambert claimed he was not surprised to see his squad turn things around on Thursday.
“I thought from that standpoint, we knew what was coming at us,” Lambert said. “We talked about it earlier this morning, the media as well. But they’re a good hockey team. They’re a big hockey team, and you have to be prepared to battle.”
The win does not change anything about what will happen this season. The Kraken will not make the playoffs, and the organization will be in for a major offseason to reflect and make changes after President of Hockey Operations Ron Francis announced his resignation on Wednesday.
But after the past month of losing and frustration, the win felt good for every player in the room.
“Obviously, things haven’t gone our way here the last month and a bit,” forward Jared McCann said. “We’ve had good games. We’ve had really bad ones. So I thought we didn’t, obviously, start off the greatest, but we kept grinding. Showed some good character.”
While the third period will receive the most attention for the actual comeback, Seattle ended up putting together strong pushes in all three periods, generating looks and chances in their strongest overall performance in recent memory.
Even the power play showed life. Despite not getting on the man advantage until 16:55 of the second period, the Kraken scored their first power-play goal since March 21 (0-for-17 in between). Seattle moved the puck around the perimeter as Vince Dunn teed up McCann for a one-timer behind the right circle, which cut it to 2-1 at 17:54.
Exactly five minutes after Vegas restored its two-goal lead in the third period, Catton picked up a puck that took an odd bounce off the corner boards in front of the net. Right before that happened, Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill left his crease to go retrieve the puck where he expected it to wind up.
That left Catton with nothing but an open cage in front of him to score what will likely rank among the easiest goals of his NHL career to cut it to 3-2.
“Crazy how that works,” Catton said. “Had a lot of good looks that haven’t gone in, and then, you know, get a really good bounce with an open net, so that one definitely felt good.”
McMann tied it at 9:16 of the third after Jordan Eberle won a battle in the corner and sent it back out to the 29-year-old forward, who has nine goals in 14 games since Seattle acquired him from Toronto at the trade deadline on March 6.
“We were talking about it all game, that that spot of the ice was open,” McMann said. “And we were trying to find it and know that that look is there. … (Eberle) obviously won that battle on the wall, which is a great play by him.”
With momentum on their side, the Kraken continued to tilt the ice down the stretch looking for a game-winner, and after surviving a back-and-forth overtime period, they ultimately got one from Catton in the shootout.
Lambert tapped him to go fifth for his first career attempt, later calling the move “overdue,” and the rookie delivered after receiving some advice from Freddy Gaudreau, who missed on Seattle’s first attempt.
Catton skated into the slot from behind the right circle, threw a few fakes with his body and ultimately beat Hill to the inside of the left post.
“I remember talking to (Gaudreau), and he’s kind of like, ‘Just feel the puck out at the start, and I think that will give you a little bit of confidence when you come in,’” Catton said. “So I tried that out, and it actually felt pretty good when I came in, and then just tried to shoulder fake a couple times, see if he’d bite, and got it up.”
Joey Daccord stopped Pavel Dorofeyev on the other end, and for the first time in two weeks, Seattle landed in the win column.
