Kraken use timely goals and great goaltending to beat Stars

By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA – The Seattle Kraken toppled the potentially playoff
bound Dallas Stars with a four to one win. The Kraken led for the
entirety of the game after a Jared McCann shorthanded goal three
minutes in, and never looked back. The Stars looked sluggish out of
the gate, and their third period goal was too little too late. With the
Kraken win, Dallas will lose their wild card spot temporarily and
Seattle stays out of the bottom spot in the Western Conference.

The Kraken offensive pressure was tremendous for the majority of the
game. Seattle made sure that the Stars wouldn’t be able to come into
Climate Pledge Arena and dictate the pace. The Kraken dominated
shots the first two periods, and really did not give Dallas any room to
breathe. Although Seattle was only able to score once heading into
the final period, the flood gates opened up in the final frame as the
Kraken hung three on Dallas to slam the door. Alternate captain Yanni
Gourde reflected on Seattle’s approach and how the game went
overall.

“We knew that they were coming into a back-to-back game, so it was
very important for us to have a good start and set the tone for the rest
of the game… We need to be comfortable with a one goal lead, be
poised with the puck, doing the right thing and making the right plays…
We gotta keep building as a team, this is a step forward,” the veteran
forward remarked.

The other major factor in Seattle’s win was goaltender Chris
Driedger’s play, with some help from the penalty kill. Despite the
Kraken conceding three penalties, the Stars could not get anything
going on advantage play. While the penalty kill did a great job, Chris
Driedger was fantastic between the pipes for Seattle. Glove save,
blocker save, kick save, you name it. Driedger was on fire tonight, just
a few days after head coach Dave Hakstol remarked that the team
needed “leadership” as he announced that Philipp Grubauer was
starting in net for the April 1st matchup against Las Vegas. Driedger reflected on his last few outings in the post-game press conference.

“It feels good to win, a couple little tweaks and getting some
confidence, doing my thing in there has been a lot of fun. What an
effort by the guys tonight, fun to watch… I felt like earlier in the year
we may be scared, maybe timid to play with the lead. Tonight, we
were a confident hockey team. Things have been going our way lately,
playing better hockey and competing no matter what the score is,”
Driedger reflected.

Despite the losses to Las Vegas, the Kraken have looked like a better
team in the past few weeks. Seattle has been building on things and
playing with confidence, something that the players have stated needs
to be done. The team’s resilience is still there, as it has been all
season, but a more consistent offensive presence and an ability to
play with a lead have developed. Head coach Dave Hakstol had a fun
statement on the approach for this final month of the season.

“It’s a busy month, we’ve got a long month in front of us. Let’s try and
have some fun, play our asses off, win hockey games and have some
fun together while we do all of those things,” Hakstol said.

The Kraken’s next contest is Wednesday, April 6th on the road against
the St. Louis Blues with a 5PM PST puck drop. Young centerman
Jordan Kyrou leads the Blues, currently sitting at third in the Central
Division and fourth in the Western Conference. The matchup will be
broadcast on ROOT sports for those in the Washington region, and
ESPN+ for anyone outside of it.