Kraken Take Their Shot But Come Up Short

Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn and company heeded the advice of their head coach and fired pucks at the opposing net from up-high, down-low, the corner of the rink and anywhere else they could get stick blades on frozen rubber.

Bolstered by the return of Jared McCann following a near-six-week absence and then a surprise tying goal from Dunn on the opening shift of the final period, the Kraken seemed poised to steal at least another overtime point as Wednesday night’s game against the Dallas Stars wound down. But then a surprise shot out of nowhere by the visitors with six minutes to go and tiniest of deflections through a screen handed the Kraken a disappointing 3-2 loss in a game where their inability to fully capitalize on generated chances and power play opportunities loomed large.

“I thought the attempts and the mentality were a little bit better tonight,” Dunn said. “I think we can still try to be a little bit more selfish with our shots. I think we’re just not making it hard enough at times for the other teams to defend.”

Dunn at least was somewhat selfish with his tying goal just 18 seconds into the third period, racing all the way up ice with the puck ahead of uncorking a 39-foot wrist shot that appeared to catch opposing netminder Casey DeSmith somewhat by surprise. The Kraken’s opening goal by Brandon Montour to tie things 1-1 in the first period similarly caught DeSmith by surprise as it came from the corner of the rink and bounced in off his pads.

Those are added benefits of a shoot first, ask questions later approach espoused the past week by Kraken head coach Lane Lambert. Unfortunately for the Kraken, the Stars benefitted similarly on the game’s decisive goal when Vladislav Kolyachonok unleashed a 57-foot wrist shot from atop the left faceoff circle that traveled through a screen, appeared to deflect off defenseman Adam Larsson and then banked in off the goal post past a stunned Joey Daccord.

Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz left the game in the second period with an undisclosed lower body injury and did not return. He was still being evaluated postgame.

Roope Hintz and Esa Lindell also scored for Dallas, which improved to 15-5-4 for the NHL’s second-best record. The Kraken, meanwhile, fell to 11-6-6 despite some stellar Daccord saves and lost to the Stars for the eighth consecutive time in regular season play despite once again playing them tough throughout most of the contest.

“It’s just tough when we’re right in the fight and a bounce just doesn’t go our way,” Dunn said. “It was kind of a weird goal there. To be honest, I thought we were defending pretty well.”

The Stars seemed to be fending off the Kraken rather well until Dunn literally took things into his own hands in going end-to-end to tie things up before many Climate Pledge Arena fans had even sat back down following the second intermission.

“The puck kind of spits out and I see a lot of room and when I looked up I was coming down on (Dallas forward Jamie) Benn,” Dunn said. “Usually when I come up on a forward that’s skating backwards I try to make at least one move. But I just put my head down and tried to shoot it as hard as I could. Honestly, I didn’t really see where it went in.”

Considering the Kraken’s lifetime history against goalie DeSmith, having scored just five times on him in five prior games, they’d take that second goal from just about anywhere with no further questions asked. They’d certainly had their chances for more, including a four-minute power play to start the game after McCann was high-sticked in the mouth by Alexander Petrovic just 49 seconds into the contest.

McCann left briefly to tend to a broken tooth but was back in on the power play for the tail end of the double minor assessed on the play. For McCann, out since the fifth game of the season with a lower body injury, it was a return badly needed by him and his team.

He certainly supplied energy, generating two of the Kraken’s 10 first period shots by the four-minute mark while also drawing an assist on Dunn’s goal. He admitted it’s been tough watching the offense struggle in his absence.

“You want to contribute,” he said. “You want to be a difference maker. Missing games is not fun. It weighs on you mentally.”

Just like Dunn, McCann felt there was another level the team could have reached despite outshooting the Stars 28-21on the night and 9-2 in the final period. The Kraken went 0-for-5 on the power play, including a near-goal by McCann that he couldn’t get a stick to.

“It’s frustrating,” McCann said. “But we had some good shots. We had some good chances. Obviously, Matty (Beniers) made a hell of a pass to me at the front of the net there that just went by me at the last second. So, it’s tough because you want to make a difference for your team. I feel like the power play wasn’t great tonight but let’s put it behind us.”

McCann would like to put his injury absence behind him as quickly as possible after he’d previously skipped the entire preseason recovering from surgery last spring to remove bone spurs from his knees. He felt he got stronger as the game wore on.

“He had a couple of good chances,” Kraken head coach Lambert said. “I thought he looked good. He hasn’t played for a long time and he hasn’t played much hockey this year at all. So, I think he’s going to help us for sure.”

Lambert was generally pleased with the Kraken’s added shooting, though less so with inability to win puck battles as the game wore on.

“Give them credit, they’re a big team,” Lambert said of the Stars. “They’ve got long guys and big defensemen, but we could have done a better job there. I certainly thought that we, from a battle standpoint, could have won more battles, created some retrievals and gotten more shots. It was needed tonight. It’s been good for us, and it’s been there when we’ve needed it in the past.

“But tonight wasn’t the night.”

Kraken defender Dunn hopes there will be future nights with better overall performance and results after some of the improved shot volume seen in this one.

“The team should feel pretty decent about that one,” Dunn said. “I know that it’s frustrating to lose and we’ve had a good thing rolling here collecting points when we need them. But if we can just kind of move on from this one and keep up with the work ethic on the defensive side of the game I think the offensive bounces will come. We’ve just got to stay focused on doing it.”