More than five periods into his team\u2019s latest scoring drought, Kraken forward Kailer Yamamoto found himself in alone with a chance he couldn\u2019t afford to miss.
Riding on the Spokane native\u2019s back Tuesday night as he shifted from backhand to forehand against Florida Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky was the weight of eight consecutive losses in a season slipping away. As Yamamoto hoisted the puck top-shelf, breaking the night’s scoring ice and keying a 4-0 streak-snapping victory, the Climate Pledge Arena crowd leaping to its feat was quite visibly surrounded by ample empty seats that have accumulated as the prior losses piled up.
“It’s really big,” Yamamoto said of being able to give his team a rare lead, something it managed just twice during the streak without ever opening the scoring. “I feel like over the past few games we’ve been playing from behind. So really, it is a big thing for our team.”
The goal was just the edge Kraken goalie Joey Daccord needed after keeping his team close all night at times when they were being badly outshot, posting the first shutout of his career in his 27th start. He stopped all 24 shots faced and has now allowed two goals or fewer his last three starts, though the Kraken hadn’t managed any goals at all in support of him the two prior.
Yamamoto said the key to making that 1-0 lead hold up in the final period was “just going after it. I feel like maybe in the third we sit back a little bit, maybe get a little passive.
“So, I think it’s just going after it and still trying to score and create a little offense.”
That they did as Pierre-Edouard Bellemare added crucial insurance six minutes into the final period, one-timing a pass to the slot from behind the net by Ryker Evans \u2014 who drew his first career point on the assist. Then, just three minutes later, Alex Wennberg beat Bobrovsky with a short-side laser to put the Kraken up by three and leave little doubt as to the game’s final result.
Eeli Tolvanen added an empty-net goal with 3:51 to play and Bobrovsky pulled for an extra attacker as the Panthers desperately tried to get back in it.
Bellemare chalked the team’s strong third up to “tenacity” \u2014 saying: “There was no one on the bench, no one on the ice that was willing to back off, get set back on their heels. Every body was ready to be on their toes. And every chance we had, we made a play.”
Nothing came easy for the Kraken on this streak or in this game and the team, judging by those unfilled seats, still has a long way to go to undo damage inflicted by the losing skid. But they\u2019ll take the long-sought victory on a night they\u2019d managed just three shots in the opening period and snapped a scoreless deadlock on their fourth attempt of the game early in the second thanks to Yamamoto\u2019s breakaway stickwork.
“I don’t feel like out of the eight (losses) we deserved zero, or the two points that we got,” Bellemare said of a team that was 0-6-2 during the skid. “I think that we played better than what the record showed. But at the end of the game, at the end of the day, if you don’t have the points, then you look like (crap). So, this one, I felt we were complete. But then, we had the little extra. We were on top of rebounds in our defensive zone and when the goalie needed to make saves, he made the save.”
Daccord had little margin for error as last season\u2019s Stanley Cup finalists poured it on early \u2014 outshooting the Kraken 9-3 in the opening period and limiting them to one good scoring chance by Yamamoto from close range.
Then, after Yamamoto gave the Kraken their first goal in 106 minutes, 4 seconds of regulation and overtime play, Daccord had to be equally adept the remainder of that middle frame as the Kraken ran into penalty trouble. At one point, the Panthers held the puck for 1 minute, 35 seconds of a delayed penalty call, forcing the exhausted Kraken to scramble around with the Florida goalie pulled for an extra attacker.
But they killed that off, then an official two-minute power play right after and another penalty only a few minutes later.
“Obviously, we needed it pretty bad,” said Daccord, who was serenaded to chants of “Jo-ey! Jo-ey!” from the crowd as the game wound down and afterwards. “So, it was great for the team to play for 60 minutes.”
Daccord said he tried not to think about the shutout after the Kraken finally gave him some goal support.
“Then, after we hit the empty-netter, you’re really almost hoping you won’t get another shot,” Daccord said with a chuckle. “You’re like ‘Alright, let’s just dump it in and break out for the next two minutes.’”
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol praised the way Daccord kept things close early on, especially in a “slugfest” opening period in which his team couldn’t get anything going at all against the tight Florida defense.
“That wasn’t pretty,” he said. “We got a couple of big saves from our goaltender and then we got going in the second period.”
But up until Yamamoto scored, taking a long stretch pass from Will Borgen to head in alone, the game looked as if it might be decided by whoever got the first goal.
“We talked a couple of nights ago about how important it is to be able to play with a lead rather than have to play from behind and chase the game,” Hakstol said. “So, that was a big play in the game to get the contributions we got from (the fourth line) tonight and particularly that goal to get us started. That’s an important point in the hockey game.”
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