Yanni Gourde and Matty Beniers each tallied one goal and one assist as the Seattle Kraken snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Sunday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Seattle also got goals from Daniel Sprong, Andre Burakovsky and Jordan Eberle. Martin Jones made 23 saves to improve his record to 13-5-2.
The Panthers, who are 4-6-3 in their past 13 games, got goals from Eric Staal and Chris Tierney. Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves.
Staal’s goal was his first goal as a member of the Panthers and his first since June 22, 2021. He did not play last season. When Staal scored Sunday, he yelled “finally!”
Seattle opened the scoring just 64 seconds into the game on a tough sequence for Carter Verhaeghe, Florida’s standout forward.
First, Verhaeghe hit the crossbar. Then, 13 seconds later, Seattle scored as Verhaeghe turned it over in his own end and Jared McCann fed Beniers, whose shot from the slot sailed over Bobrosky’s glove.
Florida tied the score 7:34 into the second as the line of Staal, Colin White and Nick Cousins won several battles for possession along the boards. Finally, White, from behind the Seattle net, fed the puck into the slot, where Staal roofed it past Jones.
Seattle, though, got that goal back less than two minutes later. Following a Matthew Tkachuk turnover, Gourde fed Burakovsky, who wired his shot over Bobrovsky’s blocker.
Seattle took a 3-1 lead with 12:45 left in the third on Eberle’s deflection.
With 8:18 left, Florida’s Ryan Lomberg was ejected and hit with a major penalty for boarding, giving Seattle a five-minute power play.
Florida killed off most of that penalty before Sprong scored on a one-timer from the left circle for a 4-1 lead.
Gourde scored on an empty-netter with 2:38 left, and Tierney added a goal for Florida with 1:17 remaining.
–Field Level Media
