Kraken Survive Tight Game vs. Golden Knights, Score Late OT Winner
SEATTLE, Wash. - No one said it had to be pretty.
Despite struggling to create offense down the stretch and allowing a tying power-play goal early in the third period against the Vegas Golden Knights at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday, the Seattle Kraken flipped things around and dominated possession in overtime before Jared McCann punched in a net-front rebound with 3.8 seconds left in the extra frame to score his 400th career point and secure a 2-1 overtime win for the Kraken.
After winning the offensive zone faceoff, Matty Beniers took a pass from Vince Dunn and rotated around towards the point. He cut in, then turned back to create separation from Golden Knights forward Ivan Barbashev before skating into the high slot and ripping a shot on net.
Sitting at the net-front, McCann pushed Vegas forward Mitch Marner towards the slot, creating enough space in front to shoot into the net after the puck bounced off goalie Adin Hill.
“I knew there wasn’t much time on the clock left,” McCann said. “We had some great chances, kind of backdoor plays and stuff like that, but sometimes you just got to go to the net and bang in a rebound. Matty made a great play, obviously turned back and created space from the guy, and I just tried to do the same at the net.”
It was an encouraging finish for Seattle after it went through lengthy stretches without a shot on goal in regulation. There was a 10:16 window in the middle of the first period, which likely prompted Kraken coach Lane Lambert to swap Jaden Schwartz and Mason Marchment on the middle six left wing.
Meanwhile, the entire third period offensive output consisted of a short-handed shot from Chandler Stephenson 41 seconds in and then nothing until a Brandon Montour “shot” from 142 feet away at 17:48. Defenseman Vince Dunn ringed a shot off the left post with 34 seconds left, but otherwise the team struggled to create offense down the stretch.
On the flip side, neither could Vegas, which only had seven shots on goal in the third and 24 through regulation.
“I thought, really, in the second and third period, the offense dried up for both teams,” Lambert said. “There wasn’t a lot of chances. There wasn’t a lot of ice either way, and those are the games you have to be patient, and you have to wait for your opportunities and trust that that’s the process.
“You can’t try and make ‘hope’ plays and blind plays and get impatient. Impatience is death in the game of hockey when you start doing that, and then you start giving up some rushes the other way.”
Once play switched to 3-on-3 and space opened up, Seattle took control, barely ceding possession and outshooting Vegas 7-3, the final one rebounded in by McCann in the nick of time.
McCann attributed the lack of offense in the third period to penalties, with Seattle having to kill 1:50 of Jordan Eberle’s holding penalty to open the third period before Vegas struck on the man advantage at 4:11 after Ryan Winterton committed an offensive zone tripping penalty.
“We obviously took a couple penalties, and against a team like that that’s obviously very powerful on the power play,” McCann said. “So we got to stay out of the box, I think, but our PK did a pretty good job tonight, I think.”
Once play shifted to overtime, McCann said he felt the team made smart plays and prioritized possession, which ultimately led to the winning tally.
Seattle’s first goal came at 7:58 of the second period, with Beniers finishing off a between-the-legs pass from Eberle in front of the net.
Beniers pushed the puck to the end boards from the left side of the zone, and Eberle went to retrieve it. Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore beat him there, and pushed the puck back out to the side wall.
As play shifted towards the middle of Vegas’ zone, Eberle lingered alone behind the goal line. Dunn got the loose puck and sent it back down to Eberle. As Theodore and Kaedan Korczak converged behind the net, Beniers drifted in front of the crease, left all alone.
Eberle whipped a backhand pass between his legs straight to Beniers, who went forehand-to-backhand to get around Hill and punch in Seattle’s first power-play goal of the season.
“It was a high-level play from both of them,” Lambert said. “Eberle, it wasn’t a ‘blind’ pass. He knew exactly where he was going. He had surveyed that situation while the puck was coming around the wall, so he just made a nice touch play there, which he does and has the skill to do, and then the finish was elite.”
Despite generating just four shots on goal in the second period, Seattle took a 1-0 lead.
Vegas tied it and ultimately forced overtime when Pavel Dorofeyev struck on the power play at 4:11 of the third for his fifth goal of the season.
Jack Eichel rang a shot off the post, but the Golden Knights recovered the puck and sent it back to Eichel behind the right circle. He attracted pressure from Jaden Schwartz as he drifted into the corner before sending it to Mark Stone behind the net.
With the penalty kill shifted towards the right side of the zone, Dorofeyev stood alone in the left circle, where Stone teed him up for a one-timer that the sharpshooter placed into the top right corner.
“Vegas definitely had a push there in the second, kind of put us on our heels a little bit,” Beniers said. “They got that goal [in the third], I thought we did a good job responding, getting back to our game. We were kind of on our heels for a little bit, we got back on our toes, started being a little bit smarter with the puck.”
It fully came to fruition in overtime, and Seattle battled through a low-event game with limited chances and came out on the other side with two points.
Doing so against a team that had won 12 of their previous 15 meetings against the Kraken left the team in an even better mood before it heads out on a six-game East Coast road trip.
“It’s huge,” McCann said. “Obviously it’s a great team over there. They’ve got a lot of experience, obviously won a Cup and added some really good players to their team, so to get a win against them is huge and huge for our confidence, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. … Take the good, learn from the bad and go from there.”
