‘Always Want to Get That One Back’: Wright Pulls Kraken Past Maple Leafs to Third Straight Win
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Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright (51) celebrates a goal wiht Seattle Kraken goalie Joey Daccord (35) during the third period against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Climate Pledge Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images [/caption]
SEATTLE, Wash. - All Shane Wright could do was sit and watch as Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly fired a shot through traffic past Seattle Kraken goalie Joey Daccord for a power-play goal to cut the Toronto deficit to 3-2 early in the third period at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Kraken forward was in the box for a holding penalty — one he seemed to disagree with as soon as it was called — and slowly skated back to the bench with the Maple Leafs back in the mix.
“Always want to get that one back if you can,” Wright said. “It sucks to be in the box when they score a PP goal.”
It took just 2:28 for Wright to redeem himself.
After Kaapo Kakko picked the puck up off Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies in the neutral zone to bring play into the offensive zone, Brandon Montour pinched on the right side of the wall to contest a pass to Matias Maccelli.
The puck bounced into the right circle, where Wright swooped in to pick it up and cut in towards the slot to fire on net. The shot beat Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz to the top right corner to restore Seattle’s two-goal lead at 8:32 of the third period.
The Kraken would hang on for a 5-2 win, their fourth in five games to close out a six-game homestand. With the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks each losing on Thursday, Seattle vaulted into third-place in the Pacific Division.
“Obviously, we want to win them all,” Kraken forward Freddy Gaudreau said. “We’re aware of the race we’re in also, so that’s just how it goes, but I think I like the fact that no matter if we won or lost, we approached the game one at a time, and that mindset allowed us to come back and finish that homestand strong.”
The Kraken did not get out of Climate Pledge Arena unscathed, as Jaden Schwartz exited with a knee-on-knee collision with Nicolas Roy early in the first period. Schwartz eventually returned to gut things out, but Berkly Catton also went down following a collision with Oliver Ekman-Larsson at 12:08 of the first period before eventually getting ruled out for the game.
Seattle coach Lane Lambert did not have an update on Catton’s status, but appreciated Schwartz coming back in when the team was down to just 10 forwards at one point.
“I can’t say enough about it, actually,” Lambert said. “(...) Jaden showed us what veteran leadership and a guy who’s been around the game a long time can do. He knew what position and what situation we were in. He came back. I don’t think he was necessarily 100 percent, although he looked like it.”
The Kraken opened the scoring just 1:21 into the game, with the top line of Jared McCann, Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle reprising their collective eight-point performance on Tuesday by setting up Beniers for a shot that trickled through from the slot.
The goal marked Beniers’ 10th goal of the month, which set a new franchise record for goals in a calendar month.
Nicholas Robertson tied it 1-1 for Toronto at 15:02 of the first period, taking advantage of a failed Kraken zone exit with a one-timer, but Seattle would punch back by continuing a recent trend.
After Beniers and Catton scored goals 18 seconds apart in Seattle’s 4-2 win against the New Jersey Devils on Sunday, and Beniers and Ryan Winterton scored 27 seconds apart — albeit with Winterton’s taken off the board for goaltender interference — in Tuesday’s 5-1 win against the Washington Capitals, Seattle scored twice in within a minute once again.
Wright struck with his first goal of the night at 6:23 of the second period, rebounding a shot from Schwartz with his backhand to give the Kraken a 2-1 lead. Then Gaudreau dangled his way into the Toronto zone starting from behind Daccord’s net before dishing a backhand pass to Montour on the right.
The 31-year-old defenseman beat Stolarz at 6:54 to give the Kraken a 3-1 lead just 31 seconds after Wright’s goal.
“You score one, sometimes you might want to let off a little bit,” Montour said. “But I think we just stepped on the gas and kept going, and we’re aggressive. We make plays. There’s an easy one by ‘Schwartzy’ that, just throw one to the net, rebound. Obviously speed by ‘Fred’ with a great pass. Things like that.”
The Maple Leafs made a push down the stretch of the second period, outshooting Seattle 9-0 in the final nine minutes of the frame — aided by a late power-play opportunity — but the Kraken held onto the two-goal lead until the third period.
Once Wright restored the multi-goal lead at 8:32 of the third, Daccord made a handful of key saves before McCann scored an empty-net goal at 17:23 to secure the 5-2 victory.
“It’s starting to get not impressive with how much he’s been doing it,” Wright said about Daccord’s performance. “I mean, he’s been great for us all year. He was rock-solid for us today.”
Seattle will have three more games on the road prior to the Olympic break, and won’t return to Climate Pledge Arena for another month, but Lambert put an emphasis on carrying over the habits the team has established as of late into the final stretch.
“Really for me, we’re dialed into playing the right way,” Lambert said. “It’s not always perfect, but when you’re trying to play the right way, I’ve said it all year long, oftentimes you end up on the right side of it, and you give yourself a good chance to win, and that’s what we’ve been doing lately. So credit to our guys.”
