Kraken fall in shootout, but not before more late drama with Canucks

Kate Shefte, The Seattle Times on Jan 3, 2025

Published in Hockey

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SEATTLE — Canucks 4, Kraken 3 SO at Climate Pledge Arena

Notable: For the second time in a week, Seattle turned the tables on Vancouver in the final five minutes with the Kraken goaltender pulled for an extra attacker. The Kraken forced overtime after trailing by two goals in the third period on Thursday night and secured a standings point before being blanked in the shootout.

Vince Dunn and Matty Beniers scored to erase the 3-1 Vancouver lead. Philipp Grubauer made 19 stops in his third straight start.

In the shootout, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Kaapo Kakko missed the net while Beniers’ bid was saved.

Right away after the opening puck drop, Seattle set up camp in the Vancouver end and Chandler Stephenson gave them a souvenir 1:52 into the game. His shot was straight-on but wiggled through the pads of Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko and into the net. Stephenson had a 2-on-1 with Andre Burakovsky less than a minute later but Burakovsky opted to pass and had it picked off.

Conor Garland scored on a breakaway to make it 2-1 Canucks, and Vancouver took that opportunity to pull Demko in favor of Kevin Lankinen. He appeared to be injured, clipped by his own defenseman.

Lankinen stretched out and warmed up, blocking two quick shots from Seattle’s Brandon Montour and Bjorkstrand. Then they left him alone for a while. The Kraken were so badly penned in — Grubauer diving around the crease to make save after save — that defenseman Jamie Oleksiak couldn’t get off the ice. He logged a punishing 4:12 shift.

After the Canucks scored again early in the third period, Beniers narrowed the gap on the power play, with the primary assist to Shane Wright and the secondary becoming Montour’s 200th NHL helper. Beniers is on a three-game goal streak, a season high.

Goaltender Joey Daccord remains day to day with an upper body injury, which is why Grubauer has carried the load in net lately.

Quotable:“At this point, it doesn’t really matter how. Just gotta keep collecting. We’re in a hole. We put ourselves in a position where we need to get as many wins and as many (standings) points as we can.” – Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour on another frantic come-from-behind victory.

Goal of the game: Dunn tied the score with less than a minute to play and forced overtime. He scored two of the four goals in the Kraken’s wild comeback last week in Vancouver, including the winner in overtime.

Player of the game: Dunn (one goal, one assist)