The Seattle Kraken’s efforts on their NHL-worst penalty kill have yielded a different kind of success.
Seattle went 3-for-7 with the man advantage Wednesday in a 3-2 overtime victory over the visiting Los Angeles Kings to snap a six-game losing streak.
The Kraken will look to build on that Friday when they play the Utah Mammoth in Salt Lake City, the first of three meetings between the teams this season.
“We had a lot of chances, and I didn’t really see a lot of frustration with our team,” said Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn, who scored the power-play winner on a slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle at 1:21 of overtime. “I thought that the guys stayed disciplined and trusted in the process all the way to the end. Guys stuck to it when they weren’t necessarily getting results on the scoreboard for us. But I think that, overall, we can all feel pretty good about that game.”
Matty Beniers scored on the power play to even the score with 26 seconds remaining in regulation.
“I thought it was awesome, just the fight from our group,” said Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord, who made 24 saves. “We’ve competed so hard these last couple weeks, and it just hasn’t gone our way.”
Jared McCann also scored for the Kraken, but he limped to the locker room after being tripped by Los Angeles goalie Anton Forsberg in the final minute — the penalty that led to Beniers’ tying goal — and didn’t return.
There was no update on McCann’s status for Friday’s contest. The forward, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, missed 17 games early in the season due to a lower-body injury. He has scored five goals and assisted on three in 11 games this year.
“I don’t really know what’s going on with him,” Dunn said. “He played a really, really good game. I mean, he made some elite plays, he was feeling good with the puck, and obviously, shooting the puck is what we need him to do every single night, so I hope it’s nothing too bad.”
The Mammoth have lost three games in a row and seven of their past nine, including a 4-3 decision Wednesday at home against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
Anton Lundell scored the tiebreaking goal for the Panthers with 52 seconds left in the third period after Utah had rallied from a 3-1 deficit.
“Obviously, a tough pill to swallow, the way it happened,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think we showed a lot of character being down by two goals and coming back in the game and giving ourselves a chance. … I think in the third period, we got in trouble, got in the (penalty) box. That’s how they got their momentum.”
Dylan Guenther scored twice for Utah and Karel Vejmelka made 32 saves.
Guenther has 13 goals this season, one shy of team leader Logan Cooley.
“I thought we played pretty well, and even in the third, I thought we managed it well,” Guenther said. “They got up early and we came back and fought hard. I thought we played well, but won’t get the two points at the end.”
–Field Level Media
