Stars give Kraken a taste of their own medicine with blast of offense to tie series
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In game four of this second round Stanley Cup Playoffs series, the Dallas Stars flipped the script on the Seattle Kraken with a huge second period that led to the Stars taking a victory inside of the Kraken’s home barn. Just as Seattle had done in game three of the series, Dallas was able to bring the fight early and breakthrough in period two to give themselves a strong cushion to lay back on as they tied the series at two games each. The Kraken never seemed to lock into a groove offensively, failing to sustain much of any time in the Stars zone until things were too far out of reach. The result sends this game back to Dallas for game five of the series, and with the series now tied through four games, the two teams will essentially play a best of three. A potential big boost for Seattle going forward is that forward and 40-goal scorer Jared McCann returned to the Kraken lineup in this game.
The Kraken huddle during a stop in play during their loss to the Stars in game four (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Bad déjà vu
If you took games three and four of this second round Stanley Cup Playoffs series, it’d be hard to decipher many of the different in the two when placed atop each other for comparison. In each contest, there was a major surge in the second period after that same team had a strong opening frame but either couldn’t score or only got one. That, the fact that the losing team pulled their starting goaltender heading into the third period, as well as how the losing side simply couldn't put together sustainable offense in the opposing zone, and these games are nearly identical to each, just with different results. Ironically, these two results are much different than the contests that the team had in the regular season, with two of three of those battles heading into the overtime period.
“A shift where there’s an extra effort play where a guy goes out and shows that his will is a little above his opponent’s has a way of building and shifting momentum… we’re going to need a whole lot more of that. ”
The Stars were able to dictate play throughout the first frame, putting the pressure on Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer and the team's defensive back end, eventually forcing enough of a slip to gain a power play. Seattle’s strong penalty kill wasn’t able to bail them out this time, as Dallas’ Jamie Benn snapped a shot home with a goal that saw him effectively use two Seattle skaters as moving screens. The Kraken got the rare battle back opportunity, but it was never a fully constructed play and often was built out of chaos rather than anything else. From there, the floodgates of the Stars offense parted wide and far, as Dallas founds way to score with some of his balanced and good game. Seattle potentially had an opportunity to slow things down when they challenged the third Dallas goal for goaltender interference, and Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer got pushed by a Stars player out of the crease, but the officials ruled it a goal. The Stars easily picked apart the holes left in the Kraken defensive backend, and things got ugly quickly.
“I have no idea what the hell goalie interference is anymore. I really don’t. I don’t think anybody does in this league. We thought it was, like, guaranteed a goalie interference. Obviously, Grubi he made contact with Grubi, and then the puck went in. It was pretty obvious, but I don’t know what really else to say.”
“I guess I don’t want to get into my specifics. Obviously challenged it because I felt like it was goaltender interference. They deemed it was not. So that’s that’s the call that was made. So, I didn’t get an explanation on why it was a good goal. And, you know, I can go through the theories as to, you know, as to how it was broken down, but I just felt like Grubi got blown out of the crease. And regardless of the amount of time in between, to be able to reset was impossible because he got blown too far out of the crease on that play. The rest, in my opinion, there’s really something wrong there. Right. And that’s the way I evaluate it. I don’t look for something that’s close or splitting hairs on it. I felt like that was grubi did not have a chance to do his job on that play and as I look at it, never really got reset, but it is what it is. Those calls are made and they happen all the time.”
Dave Hakstol, Seattle Kraken head coach, speaks with the media (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Schwartz does his best to stop Dallas’ destruction
Seattle forward Jaden Schwartz did his to get his team back in this one despite the lack of offensive cohesion that occurred for the Kraken. The team's leading scorer against the Stars in the postseason during his career, Schwartz was able to use his veteran savvy and ability to cut into the Dallas lead as much as he could, including his first goal that looked like the best sequence that Seattle had put together all night. The Kraken had gotten a takeaway after the Stars tried to cycle the puck around, catching Dallas in a little bit of a scramble as Seattle was looking to come on the rush. Excellent tic-tac-toe like passing saw the Kraken have Morgan Geekie leaving a drop pass to Justin Schultz, who was jumping into the play, to find Schwartz in the high danger area for an easy shot into the goal.
“One of the big things was actually was Schwartzy’s drive. I mean, he was one of the guys that if you go back and watch, the second he had it, he raised his level. So that’s a big part of it. I saw our guys feed off of that. Follow his lead a little bit. It doesn’t take a lot to pull momentum. It’s hard to continue to drive that momentum, but a shift where there’s an extra effort play, where a guy goes out and shows that his will is a little bit above his opponents, that has a way of building and shifting momentum. I thought Schwartz, he had that tonight. We’re going to need a whole lot more of that, you know, going on, going into game five and going into a three-game series.”
Although the Stars had responded to the first goal and somewhat demoralized some of the hope that had been generated by it, Schwartz and the Kraken were able to strike back for their second goal of the night and continue to fight back into it. It was another case of good passing by Seattle, as defenseman Vince Dunn sent the puck up to the trapezoid behind the net for Oliver Bjorkstrand, finding Schwartz all alone parked in the high slot who ripped a shot past Oettinger with some help around the net. Schwartz great play in the postseason has been a big boost for Seattle, who have numerous players on this roster with Stanley Cup Playoffs experience, to help them get on the board while also bringing a calming presence on the ice.
“Well, we didn’t get to our game until the third period. They had a higher desperation to start the game, executed better. They were the more aggressive team, and we were on our heels and weren’t able to get anything going offensively and spending enough time in the ozone. Then in the third, we could have scored four or five goals. When we got to our game, we had good looks. Just got to be ready from the get go. ”
Seattle Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz scored the first two goals of the game for his team (Photos by Liv Lyons)
All squared away, now to a best of three
It’s tough to have this game go this way, but the result and the way that this loss went for Seattle felt very similarly to the game three loss in round one against the Avalanche. It’s the Stanley Cup Playoffs, both teams that the Kraken have faced off against in the postseason have been damn good teams, albeit different. It would be ridiculous to think that the Stars were just going to lay down and get run over or just not propose any sort of challenge to this Seattle team. It’s a big boost to get Jared McCann back, and his play at full strength can be a huge piece towards the Kraken continuing to play their game against the Stars. Dallas has that star-power (not trying to word play) and some of their key players have been relatively quiet, so Seattle must continue to stay true to their game and bring the fight forward. The Kraken can’t afford to cruise and let the Stars get into their game, and let their big impact players get going.
“I thought he’s tough jumping in after two weeks into the pace of the game tonight and the intensity of the game, I’d be interested to talk to Jared. I’m sure things were happening fairly quick around him early in this game. From my vantage point, I thought things slowed down a little bit for him as the game went on and that’s what you would hope for and expect. Obviously, we’d love a different result. The first one timer that he had from the slot on his first shift, it’d be a little bit too good to be true for that one to go in. Right. It’s not really the way it works. So, at the end of the day, I thought he worked his way into this game. I thought his pace and his confidence got better and better throughout the game.”
Seattle Kraken forward Jared McCann hits the ice for warmups in his return to the lineup (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Quick notes
Jaden Schwartz is the Kraken’s leading playoff scorer against the Stars, totaling seven goals and seven assists in 15 playoff career games played.
His two goals tonight give him 14 career playoff points against Dallas, surpassing Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon (13) for most playoff points against the Stars in the league among active players.
Tonight marked Schwartz's third multi-point game against Dallas (19 GP) and his fifth multi-goal game in his postseason career (99 GP).
Justin Schultz's assist gives him four points in as many games (two goals, two assists). He is now tied with Yanni Gourde for the team lead in both points (nine) and assists (six) through the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
With two assists tonight, Vince Dunn has assists in each of the first four games of this series, giving him points in four consecutive Stanley Cup Playoff games for the first time in his career. This is also his first multi-point postseason game in his career.
Adam Larsson became the 17th unique goal scorer of the playoffs for the Kraken with his goal in the third period.
Matty Beniers continued his point-per-game pace through this series after tallying an assist on Larsson's goal. He now has four points (one goal, three assists) in the first four games of the series.
Seattle Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson scored the third goal of the game for the team (Photos by Liv Lyons)
What’s next?
Game five of this series will take place on Thursday, May 11th with a puck drop time of 6:30PM PST. This matchup back in the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas will be broadcast on TNT as the Kraken will look to bounce back after they allowed six goals on home ice to this Stars team in this game today. Seattle will be aiming to further reintegrate star forward Jared McCann into the lineup ahead of game five, as having him back up to full strength is a major addition to this lineup and could be an X-Factor that pushes them over the edge. With today’s result, there will be a game six and that will take place on Saturday, May 13th with a puck drop time of 4PM PST, and it will be broadcast across ESPN.