Burning up the Oilers: Kraken use five-goal second period to blowout Edmonton, 6-1
By Jayd Serdy, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Our Seattle Kraken broke their almost two-year long losing streak against the Edmonton Oilers in a triumphant 6-1 victory on Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena to begin a three-game homestand. The two teams have played nine games against each other since Seattle’s last win on April 1st, 2023, and the Kraken got a massive victory while acknowledging that the Oilers were heavily banged up without two of the best players in the world in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl while starting netminder Stuart Skinner was out. With a strong crowd at home despite Opening Day occupying a strong contingent a little further South at T-Mobile Park for the Seattle Mariners, the Kraken put on a big performance as pillars of their franchise moving forward showed what they’re capable of.
The first period opened up pretty slow, as there were lots of turnovers, whistles and face-offs in the first twenty minutes of this contest. Oilers forward Connor Brown hit the puck with a high stick in the final 48 seconds of the period, Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn attempted to bat the loose puck out of the air with his glove to try and avoid a dangerous opportunity but Edmonton’s Jeff Skinner found it first. Skinner took advantage of the puck right in front of the crease and used a backhanded shot to beat Vince Dunn, who was looking at the official to ask why the play hadn’t been stopped due to a high stick, and in doing so screened goaltender Joey Daccord to allow the goal. Seattle challenged the goal, and following video review it was determined that the Oilers had no goal. We’d go into the second period scoreless and even for shots on goal, as it appeared this contest was going to be similar to when the last time these two teams met in Edmonton: the Kraken struggling to take advantage of an Oilers team that was without some massive contributors.
“The high stick was a huge, huge call. All props to Brady and Tim in the video room, because it felt like a high stick. I didn’t see all the replays, but wasn’t 100% confident we were going to get it.”
Less than a minute into the second period, Edmonton centerman Mattias Janmark was sent to the box for hooking, giving Seattle their second power play of the night. The Kraken took advantage of this opportunity when Dunn caught the puck near the blue line, keeping control in Seattle’s offensive zone. Vince passed to Jared McCann at the top of the left faceoff circle, and he sent an effort through the slot to Jaden Schwartz back door for a tip in attempt that was missed and the puck made it’s way through to the corner boards, where Andre Burakovsky collected it. Burakovsky sent it back to the blue line for Dunn where the same play occurred, as the puck made it’s way to McCann before he opted to find Burakovsky instead of looking for Schwartz near the crease. Burky didn’t hesitate as the puck came to him, and he sent it to Schwartz for a wide open tip in at the side of the net as the Oilers skaters were preoccupied with Burakovsky. Seattle had the first goal of the night, and had acquired it on a power play goal that looked like the players had finally understood how to use the man advantage.
Just a few minutes later, defenseman Jake Walman, a trade deadline acquisition by the Oilers, took a heavy hit by Seattle forward Mikey Eyssimont and lost control of the puck. Schwartz was in the right place and was able to intercept Walman’s pass attempt towards the neutral zone, skate right into the free ice of the slot and ripped a shot past former Seattle Thunderbird Calvin Pickard in net on his blocker side for his second goal of the night and fourth goal in three games.
About halfway into the second period, Kaapo Kakko won the faceoff, with the puck going back to Vince Dunn along the near wall. Dunn slid a pass across the ice to partner Adam Larsson, and not dissimilar from the Kraken’s first goal, Larsson took the shot and Jani Nyman tipped the puck, giving Seattle a three goal lead. Getting to the net front to score goals and create scoring chances has been an issue for the Kraken for the majority of their existence, and it seems since the 4 Nations break that they’ve found out how important it is to do that. Quickly after the faceoff following the goal, Nyman had a shot attempt in the middle of the slot deflected by Pickard’s blocker but stay in play. Nyman was the first to it in the corner, and sent it along the end boards to linemate Kaapo Kakko, who had the attention of three Edmonton skaters and used a backhand pass to find other linemate, Matty Beniers. Beniers was wide open backdoor with Picjard focusing on Kakko, and Beniers had to just slightly lift the puck to score the fourth goal of the night for the Kraken. This sequence of goals gave Nyman four points against Edmonton in two games, and six NHL points in his first eight games as he continues to impress in his first career call up.
The barrage of scoring against the Oilers continued with about eight minutes left in the middle frame of this game, as alternate captain Jaden Schwartz carried the puck through the neutral zone on the rush before dumping it off for captain Jordan Eberle as they crossed the blue line. Schwartz acted as a screener to take away an Edmonton skater as Eberle followed, before Jordan whipped a wrist shot that bounced off the crossbar and into the net for what appeared to be the fifth goal of the night for Seattle. Edmonton challenged the goal for offsides, and ultimately won that challenge to take the goal off the board. Not to worry, though, as Seattle still held a four goal lead and wouldn’t be deterred by the disallowed score. Edmonton was doing their best to get the puck out of the zone, as Ty Emberson went to rim the puck towards the neutral zone, but Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans caught it at the blue line. Evans sent a swift pass to Burakovsky, who had skated into the open ice right in front of Pickard. Evans’ pass hit Burakovsky’s right skate and bounced to his stick, where Andre had an easy shot as Pickard was out of place. The second period ended with 16 shots on goal for Seattle, and 11 for Edmonton throughout the period but a very different showing on the scoreboard despite a somewhat decent differential in shots on goal. This was the third time in Kraken franchise history that the team scored five goals in a single period.
Opening up the third period, Edmonton had made a goaltender swap as Calvin Pickard was given the hook for Olivier Rodrique, who made his NHL debut in this game as he had been called up the day of. About four minutes into the third period and off a faceoff win in the Oilers offensive zone, Walman gained control of the puck and fired a shot from the point, which was initially blocked by Joey Daccord. After a bit of a kerfuffle in front of the net, Zach Hyman got the puck on his stick and took a shot through some of the traffic from said kerfuffle, which was again denied by Daccord, but not for long. Hyman stayed persistent around the crease, picking the puck up on the rebound and firing away with Daccord down and blocked to ensure that Edmonton wouldn’t be shutout.
Five minutes later, the Kraken struck again to put the cherry on top of this blowout of a performance. Rodrigue blocked a shot from Adam Larsson initially, but Eyssimont was able to redirect a puck in the air towards some open space as the Oilers skaters had converged upon Eyssimont and Tolvanen net front. The open space that the deflected puck went to featured Jared McCann who seemed to pay tribute to Mariners Opening Day as he swung his stick (below high stick height, mind you) and batted the puck into the net for the sixth Kraken goal of the net, giving us our final score of 6-1.
Quick Kraken notes
Ten different Kraken skaters were on the scoresheet tonight tallying a total of fifteen points.
Seattle's five goals were the most scored in a period at home in franchise history. This was the third time in franchise history the team has scored five goals in the same period including Jan. 14, 2023 at Chicago and Nov. 29, 2022 Los Angeles.
All five Kraken skaters who entered tonight's contest with a point streak extended it.
Jaden Schwartz netted a pair of goals tonight, extending his goal streak to three games and tallying five points (4g/1a) in that span.
Schwartz's 23 goals are the most the forward has scored in a season in the past seven years.
Andre Burakovsky extended his point streak to three games, recording two goals and two assists in that span.
After adding a goal and assist tonight, Jared McCann has five points (1g/4a) in three consecutive games.
Matty Beniers is riding a three-game point streak adding three points (1g/2a).
Vince Dunn has added a helper in each of his past three games.
Jani Nyman had his second double point (1g/1a) night of his NHL career. He has four points in his past three games (1g/3a).
With an assist tonight, Kaapo Kakko matched his career high in points (40).
Joey Daccord had 36 saves tonight, tied for the third most in his NHL career.
What’s next?
With this blowout victory over the Edmonton Oilers at Climate Pledge Arena, our Seattle Kraken have started a three-game homestand off the right way. The team will have a day of practice tomorrow at the Kraken Community Iceplex before their next contest on Saturday, March 29th in the first of two consecutive games against the Dallas Stars in a span of three games. This game on Saturday has a puck drop of 7:30PM PDT as the Stars come to town, bringing their second overall spot in the Western Conference into town. In addition to a contest against one of the best teams in the NHL, this will be the Kraken’s “Mascot Madness game” as mascots from a few local Seattle sports teams and a few NHL mascots will be around Climate Pledge Arena with Buoy to cause some chaos.
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