Joey Daccord made 35 saves as the Seattle Kraken won an opener — either season or home — for the first time in their five years of existence, defeating the visiting Anaheim Ducks 3-1 on Thursday.
Vince Dunn, Mason Marchment and Jared McCann scored for Seattle, which won its first game under new coach Lane Lambert.
Anaheim’s Bennett Sennecke, the third overall pick in the 2024 draft, tallied in his NHL debut. Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal stopped 28 of 31 shots.
The Kraken broke a 1-1 tie at 3:50 of the second period.
Brandon Montour pokechecked the puck away from Troy Terry just inside the blue line and then outmuscled the Anaheim forward while skating down the right wing to create a 2-on-1 rush. Montour skated into the corner before feeding a pass out front to Marchment, who scooped the puck over Dostal’s blocker.
Seattle extended its lead to 3-1 at 4:25 of the third period. Jordan Eberle carried the puck over the blue line at the right point and sent a cross-ice pass into the left corner for Matty Beniers. The center backhanded a pass to a wide-open McCann out front, and McCann lifted a shot into the upper left corner of the net.
The score was tied after the first period despite the Ducks holding a 17-5 edge in shots on goal.
The Kraken opened the scoring at 2:21. Jaden Schwartz quickly carried the puck horizontally into the offensive zone before pulling up at the top of the right faceoff circle and sending a pass back to Adam Larsson at the blue line. Larsson fed Dunn at the top of the left faceoff circle for a shot that beat Dostal high to the near post.
The Ducks tied it at 4:11 after Dunn turned over the puck when he tried to backhand it up the ice from behind his own net. Mason McTavish intercepted the clearance attempt just above the goal line on the left wing and backhanded a pass across the top of the crease to Sennecke. The 19-year-old rookie beat Daccord before the goalie could get from post to post.
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville, a three-time Stanley Cup winner who ranks second in NHL history with 969 coaching victories, was behind the bench for the first time in nearly four years after being banned by the league for his role in the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks’ sexual-abuse scandal.
–Field Level Media
