SEATTLE — Just when it seemed the Seattle Kraken were headed to another demoralizing loss, they exploded.
Seattle scored three goals in less than six minutes during the third period, erasing a two-goal deficit and defeating the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 on Saturday night at Climate Pledge Arena.
“We just stayed with it,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. “… All of a sudden, the floodgates opened.”
Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer made a great save early in the third period to keep it at 2-0, and then the offense got going with a flurry of goals.
But Yanni Gourde brought Seattle all the way back with his 15th goal of the season — on assist by Haydn Fleury — at the 13:03 mark of the third period to give the Kraken the 3-2 lead. And they held on, with Gourde scoring an empty-net goal with 18 seconds left.
Seattle, which won for the second time in three games, dominated early but had nothing to show for it. When Detroit scored a pair of goals in the second period, it did not look good for the Kraken.
It was a good ending for Gourde on what had been a rough night. He had to get stitched up after taking a puck to the face in the second period. But he returned in a big way in the third period.
“You may think that’s spectacular, but if you hang around (Gourde) every day, you would just think its another day,” Hakstol said. It’s what he does.”
The Kraken dominated early in the third period and finally were rewarded when Adam Larsson beat Detroit goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic on the Kraken’s 34th shot on goal at 7:10.
It was Larsson’s fifth goal of the season, and it was assisted by Jared McCann and Vince Dunn.
“That first one is always the momentum goal for you,” Larsson said. “It kind of snowball from there.”
Indeed.
Less than three minutes later, Jaden Schwartz got behind the Red Wings defense to beat Nedeljkovic. It was his eighth goal of the season on assists by Dunn and Alex Wennberg.
Seattle had a 16-8 advantage on shots on goal in the third period, and it was even better in the first period.
The Kraken started so dominant that you started to wonder if the Red Wings might go an entire period without a shot on goal.
Seattle had 13 shots on goal before Detroit had its first one, 11 1/2 minutes into the game.
That is because Detroit goaltender Nedeljkovic made one great save after another to bail his team out.
As dominant as Seattle was in the first period, winning the shots on goal battle 16-6, it didn’t show on the statistic that mattered most.
“Ideally, we would have a found a way to get one or two in the first period,” Hakstol said. “We had a great first period.”
The second period was not nearly as good as the Red Wings broke through with two goals.
Seattle’s biggest problem in the second period was the inability to take advantage of three power plays, including 59 seconds with a two-man advantage.
The Kraken recorded just two shots on goal during those power plays and seconds after the last one ended, Detroit scored the game’s first goal.
The Red Wings took advantage of a Kraken turnover in their own end, with Joe Veleno capitalizing on a pass from Dylan Larkin to score his sixth goal of the season at 13:18 of the period.
Detroit got its first power play of the game a couple of minutes later and unlike Seattle, it had no trouble setting up a scoring chance. Hirose flicked in a rebound after the puck bounced off Grubauer’s pads to score his first goal of the season at 16:08.
Larsson was happy with the win, but he kept it in perspective as the Kraken (19-36-6) have won just three of their past 15 games.
“It’s just one game and we need to continue this,” Larsson said. “Honestly, losing has been tough and I think everyone is sick of it. … It can’t just be a one-night thing.
“Tonight was a good night and we felt good about our game, but we still have a ways to go.”
