Kraken earn another hard-fought road point

BUFFALO, New York – Perhaps the most encouraging sign from Bobby McMann and his teammates after another point-salvaging contest was how genuinely disappointed they were to have lost to one of the NHL’s best squads.

They said all the right things, but their eyes and body language gave away plenty after a 3-2 shootout defeat against a Buffalo Sabres squad they literally fought and battled to the finish. With help from a 34-save, playoff caliber performance from goalie Philipp Grubauer, they also closed to within two points of the Nashville Predators for the final Western Conference wild-card spot.

“I think the guys are feeling the magnitude of the moment and the time of season,” McMann said after scoring his seventh goal in eight games for the Kraken since being acquired by trade earlier this month. “We recognize how important these games are and how important this push is. So, guys are playing with a ton of emotion, a ton of intensity. And I think it’s translated into a better game for us all around.”

That is has, though the emotion and intensity make dropping games such as this one tougher to swallow despite the consolation point. The Kraken know they played well enough Saturday to secure the additional point in regulation despite the caliber of opponent, and failing to do so made them somewhat angry, and, they hope, ready to make up for it in Edmonton on Tuesday night.

They have 10 games still to play and have clearly upped things to a higher level this past week in securing four of a possible six points against Florida, Tampa Bay and now Buffalo.

Part of the frustration here was failing to fully capitalize on an initial advantage provided by the trio of McMann, Chandler Stephenson and Kaapo Kakko, who’d staked the Kraken to a 2-0 lead with under seven minutes to go in the second period. Stephenson continued his hot play by taking a Kakko pass in close and going top shelf on netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to open the scoring in the latter part of the first period with McMann also drawing an assist.

McMann then used his blazing speed to beat defender Rasmus Dahlin down the right-wing boards and score on Luukkonen for a two-goal Kraken lead in the middle frame with Kakko and Stephenson drawing assists. But Dahlin quickly atoned with his 100^th career goal on the power play before the period ended and after Grubauer had made 24 consecutive saves to start the contest.

The Sabres then tied it with 8:21 to go in regulation when Peyton Krebs skated into the right circle and beat Grubauer with a wrister. After a scoreless overtime, Tage Thompson and Jack Quinn beat Grubauer their first two shootout tries while the Kraken came up empty.

“We battled hard,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done. I thought our goaltender was outstanding, gave us the game we needed. I thought we had a lot of really good chances. We have to score.”

Indeed, not long after McMann made it 2-0, Freddy Gaudreau had the puck in the slot with Luukkonen down but couldn’t lift his shot attempt. Jared McCann, newly returned from a lower body injury, also had a chance in close but couldn’t convert. Nor could Berkly Catton from the slot, though they weren’t alone is missing solid chances while other times the Kraken overlooked clear shot opportunities in favor of pass attempts.

That said, this game was more-wide open than the Kraken typically play. The high-octane Sabres entered with the third most goals per game in the entire league but the Kraken matched them step for step in a game where Buffalo held a slight 36-34 shots edge.

“I give our guys credit, we made some good plays offensively,” Lambert said. “We just have to put the puck in the net. We had point blank shots. We had opportunities to win the hockey game.”

What’s been clear the past two games is the Kraken have found a higher gear. As they had against Tampa Bay two nights prior, the Kraken played an engaged brand of hockey where they battled for every puck and immediately responded to any physical liberties taken by their opponent.

Never was that more evident than when hulking 6-foot-7, 231-pound Sabres defenseman Logan Stanley leveled Shane Wright in the neutral zone late in the opening period. Stanley appeared to catch Wright with a forearm to the head, though the forward was low to begin with and the hit was ruled clean.

McCann immediately went after the much bigger Stanley, as did Vince Dunn, causing a scrum to erupt before any punches were thrown. Then, only a couple of minutes into the second period, 6-foot-7, 255-pound Kraken defenseman Jamie Oleksiak challenged Stanley to a fight near center ice.

It was Oleksiak’s first bout in 2 ½ seasons, dating back to November 2023. The duo locked arms in a tense stalemate for several moments until Oleksiak, who’d taken an initial punch, got a hand free, landed two blows – knocking Stanley’s helmet off – and then threw him to the ice. 

Wright, for his part, left the game and did not return.

Lambert said the referee explained the no-penalty call was because Wright “was so low” that he exposed his head area and Stanley wasn’t considered to have targeted it. And though Lambert liked how his team chose to “step up to the plate” when things got physical, he added: “You know, we can initiate that. We don’t have to just wait for some team to start dishing it out. We need to initiate.”

Grubauer did all he could to preserve the Kraken lead before the tying goals, making a terrific second period stop on Mattias Samuelsson on a bang-bang play right at the net front. The puck then came back to Tage Thompson for a one-timed blast that Grubauer snared. Later, Grubauer made a terrific kick save on a puck redirected at the net front by Jason Zucker.

Grubauer also had help behind him, with Ryan McLeod hitting the crossbar on a last second shot right at first period’s end. Then, Sam Carrick hit the right post on a second period shot from 10 feet out that ricocheted through the goal mouth and struck the opposite post while staying out.

McMann scored less than a minute later to put the Kraken up two. But the Sabres would not be denied.

Kraken forward Kakko was among those irked at not picking up the extra point.

“It’s a good thing we got a point,” Kakko said. “But we’ve got to find a way to win these kinds of games.”

He said the team’s heightened physical play and responses are a direct result of their predicament: Being on the outside of a playoff position looking in with games winding down.

 “It’s late in the year,” he said. “We need these points right now. So, I think that’s the mindset. These are like the playoffs already for us. We have to win these games…maybe that’s the reason we’ve been playing pretty good lately.”

McMann’s addition and the added dimension it’s brought the team’s second forward line hasn’t hurt either. And the newest Kraken forward, now with a team-leading 26 goals when including his Toronto totals, said this level needs to continue.

“We generated enough chances,” McMann said. “And Rig (Oleksiak) standing up for the boys was huge. That kind of fed our energy for the rest of the game. And so, our whole effort was pretty good.”