When the Seattle Kraken look at the Western Conference standings, it’s the Calgary Flames who draw their attention.
The Kraken are eight points behind Calgary for the conference’s second and final wild-card berth.
Seattle will have a chance to draw closer when it hosts the Flames on Sunday night.
“We’re all responsible for how the season has gone so far,” Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson said.
Of course, the Kraken also would have to move past St. Louis, Utah and Vancouver to get to Calgary. The Kraken have multiple games remaining against each of those teams.
Seattle also has two more games left with the Flames after Sunday. The Kraken won the first meeting between the teams this season, 2-1 on Oct. 19 in Seattle following Jordan Eberle’s overtime winner. That saddled Calgary with its first loss of the season after four consecutive wins.
The Kraken snapped a two-game skid with a 6-2 victory against visiting San Jose on Thursday. Defenseman Brandon Montour scored twice and forward Chandler Stephenson added a goal and two assists.
Seattle got a spark from defenseman Vince Dunn, who fought San Jose’s Henry Thrun after the Sharks got a little too close to goaltender Joey Daccord in a second-period scramble in front of the net.
Daccord likely will play in the Kraken’s three remaining games before the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Philipp Grubauer cleared waivers and was sent to Coachella Valley of the American Hockey League to work on his game.
“Our home record, overall, has never been good enough,” Dunn said when asked about the second-period tussle. “We want to make this place a hard place to play in. That comes with attitude. Sometimes things happen like that (on the ice). I think everyone just came out and battled hard. We know, obviously, the tough situation with our (Grubauer) and they kind of come after (Daccord) a little bit there, so we got to stand up for him there.”
Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said he had no problem with Dunn dropping the gloves in that situation.
“I think our team and Vince Dunn are at their best when they are engaged and emotional and playing with aggression,” Bylsma said. “If that leads to fisticuffs, that’s OK.”
The Flames will be playing their second game in as many nights after a 3-1 loss Saturday to visiting Detroit, their third loss in the past four games.
“I think we probably deserved to win, I’d say,” said Nazem Kadri, who scored the Flames’ lone goal. “I really liked most of our game. Obviously a couple breakdowns and they’re an opportunistic team, a team that’s got talent on their roster, and they made us pay. For the most part I think we were pretty good.”
Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee made their Flames debuts after being acquired in a trade Thursday with the Philadelphia Flyers for Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier and a pair of draft picks.
“I liked them both,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said of the newcomers. “I thought they did a good job. It’s been a long couple days for them and I thought they did a good job. We threw them pretty much into every situation and I thought both guys handled it well.”
Goaltender Dustin Wolf made 22 saves for the Flames, which means backup Dan Vladar likely will be in the net Sunday in Seattle.
–Field Level Media
