This being their final home game for two weeks, it’s possible some Kraken players on the ice Wednesday night won’t be back here for the team’s return.
The March 21 trade deadline is inching closer and general manager Ron Francis let it be known this week he’ll be shopping guys in hopes of securing draft picks or prospects. An obvious message leading into the team’s 4-3 victory over the Nashville Predators is that anybody wanting to stick around had best start giving him a reason to keep them.
Colin Blackwell decided this game by scoring what might have been the team’s second-effort goal of the year, taking three or four whacks at a loose puck in front of Juuse Saros and finally jamming it home when everyone else thought it was frozen. The short-handed goal at 3:19 of the final period put the Kraken ahead to stay on an entertaining night of action when no lead was ever really safe.
The game started out like too many others during the Kraken’s losing streak, finally snapped at seven games. They played things tight but fell behind by a couple early in the second period.
Then, in the type of outburst Kraken fans have waited for all season, Alex Wennberg, Calle Jarnkrok and Yanni Gourde scored three goals just 2:39 apart to turn that deficit into a sudden lead.
The announced crowd of 17,151 at Climate Pledge Arena seemed incredulous as Gourde’s goal on a bang-bang pass to the slot from Blackwell found the net behind Saros. The Kraken had gone five straight games without scoring more than twice, so seeing them pop a trio in the time in typically takes to sing a dramatic version of the national anthem was a rare sight indeed.
Wennberg’s goal was key, coming just 28 seconds after Matt Duchene scored his first of two on the night to put Nashville up by a pair. Marcus Johansson, one of the Kraken veterans that could be moved in a deadline deal, worked the puck toward the net then slid a pass to Wennberg at the doorstep for an easy tap-in.
Wennberg had gone 19 games without scoring, his most recent goal coming Jan. 13 in St. Louis. As for Johansson, one of a handful of veterans not under contract for next season and an obvious deal candidate for Francis, he insisted Wednesday morning he wasn’t paying attention to rumors.
“There’s nothing that we can control,” Johansson said. “We just go out and play and if it happens, it happens. But I don’t even look at it. I try to focus on the game and not let that affect me in any way.”
Johansson was asked by a media member whether he wants to stay. “I have not given it a lot of thought,” he said. “But I love it here. It’s a great city and the fans are unbelievable. We have everything we could ask for here, it’s been a lot of fun so far, so yeah I love it here.”
Jarnkrok is another veteran that could garner interest from playoff teams at the deadline. His tying goal, just 1:35 after Wennberg’s came in typical fashion by moving in close and one-timing a pass out front.
In fact, all four of the Kraken goals came off hard work and players going for the net. And it help offset a Nashville start that saw Philip Tomasino open the scoring at 13:13 of the opening period, getting two cracks at the puck in front of Chris Driedger and putting the second one in.
Duchene would score on the power play from the left circle in the second period. And then, after the quick flurry of Kraken goals, Duchene scored again to tie it 3-3 before the period ended.
Driedger had failed to play a puck off the end boards and it came out front when Duchene easily backhanded it into a partially vacated net. That left it to Blackwell to deliver in the third after Gourde stole a puck behind the net and sent it out front.
Blackwell kept jamming away after an initial Saros save. Then, just as it appeared the whistle would blow, he took one final stab and the puck banked in off the goalie’s leg.
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