More Than Double the Fun in First Home ‘W’

Whew and wow and whew.  Whew, the Kraken scored three goals in the opening period of play here at Climate Pledge Arena Thursday against the formidable Carolina Hurricanes, an elite squad with a foundation built by then-Carolina GM and now Kraken hockey boss Ron Francis. That goal count matched the total of the first four games of the nascent 2023-24 season.

Then, wow, Vince Dunn scored his first goal of the season to make it 4-1 early in the second period. Dunn, the breakout star of Season 2, absolutely wired a shot past Carolina goaltender Antti Raanta, making Seattle two-for-two on the power play to that point. It marked Dunn’s third point of the night. He earned an assist on the first power-play goal, getting the puck net-front to goal scorer Jaden Schwartz via forward Kailer Yamamoto.

Then, whew again. Entering the third period with a 4-1 advantage, a determined Carolina group fought back with two goals in the first six minutes of the frame to eliminate any headlines describing this game as a rout (even if the final score might suggest otherwise) and, well, probably make way too many Kraken fans way too nervous.

But Jared McCann and Tye Kartye came to the rescue with mid-third period goals to safely regain order and, oh, by the way, more than double their season output of goals with the 7-4 final. Oliver Bjorkstrand added an empty-net tally to make it seven goals from seven different scorers. That two-percent shooting percentage going into Thursday’s game will look a whole lot better in Dave Hakstol’s calculator while reviewing the game film.

Kartye had himself quite a night: He scores his first “official” NHL goal (the league separates out playoff goals when talking career goals to allow historical comparisons of regular-season production) to help salt the victory, then gets in a fight, picking up seven penalty minutes (minor for roughing, five minutes for fighting) and finishes the night by getting the Davy Jones hat award to the Kraken’s deserving hard-nosed player after a win.

Dunn, Burakovsky Rev Up Night

On a late-first-period Hurricanes power play, Dunn sparked a short-handed scoring attempt by firing a shot on Raanta, who made the initial save but couldn’t control the rebound. Summer free-agent newcomer Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (that enough hyphens for you?) was there to scoop and shove in the rebound for his first score as a Kraken PK and faceoff specialist extraordinaire.

“I think my timing is a little better,” said Dunn when asked post-game to compare his progress from the season opener. “Everyone really chipping in tonight makes my game shape itself. I don't get any of those [points] without everyone doing their part out there.”

Dunn’s return to form heartens Dave Hakstol too: “It's nice to see Donner get on the board the way he did. He's played pretty well. It’s challenging when you miss a good chunk of training camp like he did. There were different parts of his game that had a little bit of rust to it. Maybe he just lacked a little bit of game timing, right?”

Andre Burokovsky earned two primary assists of his own in the first 40 minutes to reach a career milestone of 200 assists. Even more significantly, Burakovsky seemed to sync his timing and sizeable skill set during Thursday’s bonafide victory. The Cup-winner in Colorado and D.C. was the Kraken’s leading scorer when a groin injury in February (first shift after the All-Star break) sidelined him for the rest of the year. Coach Dave Hakstol and teammates alike have mentioned the high-level upside of Burakovsky once he gets his playmaking and elite shot back to form.

"Burky you know, a guy that's coming off a long-term injury, to be able to have some success offensively and be part of that. You know that that's going to help him continue to elevate his game back to where he wants it to be," said Hakstol.

Line Swap: First Dibs for Gourde

The first payoff of this homestand’s switching of forwards Andre Burakovsky and Oliver Bjorkstrand goes to the Yanni Gourde line. After Carolina doubled the Kraken's scoring attempts in the early going (seven saves for SEA starter Joey Daccord in the first six minutes), the Kraken opened the scoring when Burakovsky spun just inside the Carolina blueline and zipped a shot on goal. New linemate Gourde was in the process of his usual annoy-the-goalie netfront endeavors and positioned his stick to redirect Burakovsky’s line drive to the back of the net. One-nothing Kraken and mega-decibels.

While Kraken offensive stats were rolling in from the icy precinct of Climate Pledge Arena, Joey Daccord notched his first-ever NHL win in the month of October and has now been a major reason why the Kraken have collected three of a possible four points in Daccord’s two starts. The 27-year-old, who made his first opening season roster this fall, rejected 29 of 30 shots on goal in the first two periods.

Six Degrees of Power Play

This time Jaden Schwartz didn’t miss. Tuesday night, the veteran forward was alone in front of the Colorado with time to collect the puck and deke Avalanche goalie Alexandar Georgiev. But Schwartz couldn’t get the puck past Georgiev.

Tuesday night, six seconds into the Kraken’s second power play, Vince Dunn made the quick decision to shoot from the blue line, sifting the puck (Dave Hakstol uses the term) net-front where Schwartz once again had the early opp to stickhandle the puck, this time getting past Carolina goalie Antti Raanta.

After an 0-for-5 night in the home opener, the Seattle power play put the Kraken ahead for good with the second goal of the night and second power-play score in the game. The Kraken racked three special-teams goals in the opening 20 minutes, two on the power play plus a shorthanded score.

PK is More Than OK

The Kraken penaltykillers kept their stellar work going by shutting down Carolina’s power play Thursday through 40 minutes. As if spotless scoresheets in the first five games wouldn’t be enough, the PK unit scored in the final minute of the first period. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, the new guy and impressive, did the honors with a smooth-skating assist from PK stalwart Alex Wennberg.