Whew. That win will give you a jolt.
The Seattle Kraken pulled out a show-stopping, come-from-behind 2-1 victory in overtime over the Edmonton Oilers, giving a sellout crowd in downtown Everett’s Angel of the Winds Arena a memory they’ll never forget:
Extra attacker, last minute, edge of your seat stuff game-tying goal, then the cherry on top: a Jared McCann overtime blast to bring down the house.
It gave the Kraken a 3-1 pre-season record in the home of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, equaling the score the last time they hosted NHL hockey in this venue, 12 years ago. That year, where a neutral site game hosted the Lightning and Coyotes but also was devoid of hometown flair, was the direct opposite from tonight – an overwhelming partisan Kraken crowd that delivered noise after Jaden Schwartz’s dramatic game-tying goal which sounded anything but a pre-season contest.
It is pre-season, after all. The score may live as inconsequential. The memories will not.
The Kraken wrap up their week in the final WHL venue tour stop tomorrow night, in Kent, home of the Seattle Thunderbirds – another site famous for crowd energy.
Notes from tonight:
- Jaden Schwartz, Alex Wennberg, and Mark Giordano (two assists) were all deployed by head coach Dave Hakstol with over a minute left in regulation to hunt the game tying goal. Face-off won, point shot set up, screen at the net, and bang – tie game. That’s leadership.
- Kailer Yamamoto (Spokane Chiefs) took the hooking penalty in overtime to open the door for the Kraken, who blew it down.
- Both Jared McCann goals in the pre-season have come on the power play, showcasing a lethal shot. His goal on Sunday in Spokane came on a snap shot from the left circle, and tonight – Jordan Eberle bumped a pass to the right circle – precisely in McCann’s wheelhouse.
- Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner (39 saves) was en route to runaway player of the game before the Kraken derailed him. Funny enough, his last win in downtown Everett was also a 1-0 win – with the Swift Current Broncos – when he outdueled Carter Hart with a 32-save shutout in Game 4 of the WHL Championship Series.
- Philipp Grubauer was tested early and preserved the Kraken’s 1-0 lead with 16 saves in the first 40 minutes, before giving way to eventual winner Joey Daccord (9 saves).
- After giving up a pair of power play goals in Tuesday’s loss at Edmonton, the Kraken have gone 7-for-7 on the penalty kill over the last two games.
FROM THE PODIUM:
Head Coach Dave Hakstol on his overall thoughts on the game:
“Well we weren't ready to start, you know, so we got off to a slow start. That really carried through a lot of the first period, even though it was really probably the first five six minutes of a period. But all of a sudden that snowballs into three minor penalties against and we ended up doing a good job on the (penalty kill) but you spend, again, a lot of energy, probably at a time, you know, at a time when we don't have a lot of extra energy to spend so we had our moments where we had good pushes, but at the end of the day, we spent too much time in our own defensive zone even though we didn't give up a lot off of that. But the fact of the matter of that is, we didn't have the puck, and we're not able to generate, you know, when we're when we're playing defense and spending as much time in the (defensive) zone as we did.”
Hakstol on getting opportunities to give players looks on extra attacker, three-on-three, and four-on-three power plays:
“You hit the nail on the head. We talked about that in the back room, these are a lot of areas that we needed to work on in practice. Now we got the jump start, we were able to see those situations. Most importantly though is the presence. You know of our guys to execute in those situations is important, even though we haven't been able to work on them. The players went on, they were organized, and they did a good job and executed in those situations. So, those are positives. There's always (a chance) we'll break those down and look at, you know the different individual performances. Some of the team items, but at the end of the day, you know, one of the ways that you build - I talked about it the last couple days and one of the ways you build chemistry and camaraderie is by going through situations like we did tonight where things aren't coming easy not going all that well, but you find a way.”
Hakstol on Jared McCann and his linemates:
“That’s one of the things – Jared, that entire line has done a good job and to be able to have the ability to move back and forth from the wing to the middle. It’s really valuable, but also what comes with that position is a lot of work, you know, and you saw some of that in our team tonight, especially, as you know with our centermen or with a defenseman, you spend the time in your defensive zone and you're spending a lot of energy. So that takes a lot of work, and you know that's no different for ‘Canner.’ So you saw some of that play into his game tonight as well. It takes, at the end of the day, he makes plays for us offensively which are key and at the right time. But it's been a lot of time defensively. especially in our system as a centerman spend a lot of that energy defensively rather than with the puck and offensively.”