Wrong Turn: Kraken Penalties Lead to Utah Loss

SALT LAKE CITY – The Kraken’s current road trip spun out in Utah Tuesday, snapping a three-game winning streak highlighted by two road wins in the previous three nights. The Kraken slicked off-track with two penalty calls eight seconds apart quickly turned into a hazard ahead in the form of a pair of power play goals and a 3-0 lead that landed as a 7-1 final score. The Kraken finish their road schedule for the season Thursday at Vegas.

“You can't give a team like that that many chances on the power play,” said Jared McCann, who scored the Kraken’s lone goal. “They're gonna make you, make you pay. Obviously, we didn't do the job tonight. It was a tough back-to-back, obviously changing time zones and getting in at three o'clock in the morning. But we just just didn't have it tonight, and we left our goalie out to dry as well.”

Question: Is this a game you simply shake and get right for Thursday's game at Vegas?

“You’ve got to talk about a little bit,” said McCann. “You’ve got to you got to take some aggressiveness from this last game ... I feel like we need to show a little bit more emotion, especially on the bench. We're just so quiet when things don't go our way. It's unacceptable.”

There were plenty of numbers not to like in the first period here in Utah on Tuesday. The least palatable stat, of course, was a 3-0 deficit as the Kraken headed to the locker room for the first intermission. Another bad-news stat: Eight power play minutes were awarded to Utah over three penalties. The Kraken delivered a solid penalty kill effort with specific kudos to goalie Joey Daccord when Ryker Evans was whistled off for cross-checking in the ninth minute of the opening period. But mid-period, Brandon Montour went off for tripping, and eight seconds later, Jamie Oleksiak was nabbed for high-sticking former teammate Kailer Yamamoto, drawing blood to make it a four-minute minor, setting up the second straight night of Seattle having to snuff out nearly two minutes of 5-on-3 play favoring the foe.

While the Kraken fulfilled that mission Monday, Utah reversed the trend, scoring 40 seconds into Oleksiak’s four minutes to make it 2-0 when Utah captain Clayton Keller scored his team-leading 27^th goal. With seconds left, the double-minor Yamamoto scored on a wide-open look after Utah cycled the puck around the Kraken zone. It’s Yamamoto’s second goal of the year in his 9^th NHL appearance of the season, six of which have been in the last two weeks. The Spokane native was called up from AHL Tucson Monday and was a point-per-game player (19 goals, 34 assists for 53 points in 52 games for the Roadrunners). It all added up to two power-play goals on four opportunities and a 15-4 shots-on-goal advantage, including four high-danger chances, for the home squad in the first 20 minutes.

“They played with speed and pace, and we fed that a little bit with our puck play; a couple of turnovers – not a couple – a handful of turnovers exposed their speed and how dangerous they are on the rush,” said Dan Bylsma after the loss.

Bylsma said penalties that formed a four-minute Utah power play with a sizeable chunk of 5-on-3 penalty killing: “That can't keep happening, especially against a good power play like they have, and especially in a back-to-back game, you can't, can't give them those opportunities. Obviously, not an ideal scenario.”

Second Period Not Bearing Any Remedies

With another Utah power play goal involved, the road slippage continued as the Central Division foe added four more goals in the middle period to build a 7-0 lead, likely leaving some Kraken fans to wonder if the night’s backup goalie, former University of Maine goalie Victor Ostman, who started the season at ECHL Kansas City, might make his NHL debut in the third period (he did, see below). Joey Daccord was peppered with 14 more shots in the second period to make it 29 in the first 40 minutes, while Seattle finished with seven middle-period shots for a two-period total of 11.

Ostman Makes His NHL Debut

The third period in an arena that opened in 1991 and is now generating NHL fan energy at formidable levels had a better look from the Kraken perspective, with Jared McCann scoring his 21st goal of the season 23 seconds into the period. Andre Burakovsky and Vince Dunn earned the assists on the power play score, made possible by an end-of-second-period penalty on Utah’s veteran defenseman Ian Cole. McCann ended Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka’s shutout bid, but the Czechia-born keeper was strong nonetheless in his 21^st consecutive start.

The story of the final 20 minutes was Kraken prospect Victor Ostman’s debut in a Kraken uniform or any NHL uniform. He faced several challenging, close-in shots in the early minutes and stood tall during a Utah flurry halfway through the period. He made a stellar save, then covered the puck with Utah forwards crashing the net. Adam Larsson, Eeli Tolvanen and Mikey Oyssimont all make a point to tap Ostman on the leg pads. Ostman finished with 13 saves.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Swedish goaltender posted a 21-7-4 record with ECHL Kansas City this season before moving up to AHL Coachella Valley when Ales Stezka was injured. Stezka started a game for the Kraken this season, and Firebirds rookie star goaltender Nikke Kokko appeared in relief earlier this year.

The Kraken signed the University of Maine goaltender to a two-year, entry-level contract ($950,000 average annual value) after his final game in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament. The 23-year-old posted a .918 save percentage on his way to 14 wins and five shutouts (second best in the highly competitive Hockey East conference) during his junior season when he was a semifinalist for the Mike Richter Award, which goes to the nation’s top goalie. Like Stezka, Ostman played one season in the USHL Chicago Steel, notching a 25-4-0 record and .918 save percentage during the 2019-20 season.