No Answer for Colorado Stars

Seattle scored first for the 11^th time in 16 games, but couldn’t hold off a Colorado squad looking for payback after losing to the Kraken in Denver last Thursday. After Brandon Tanev scored on his first shot since opening night (missing 14 games to injury), Colorado superstars Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar book-ended goals to establish a 3-1 lead the Kraken couldn’t answer.

After firing 16 shots in the first 30 minutes, Seattle managed just two shots in the second half of the middle period and one shot on goal in the third frame to finish with 19 shots while Colorado went from eight shots at the night’s halfway mark to 31 SOG by game end.

Rantanen opened the scoring when he cleaned up (yet one more superstar) Nathan MacKinnon’s net-front shot that hit the side of the net. Rantanen’s 10^th goal of the season tied matters at 1-1. Early third period, Makar – yes, still getting booed by Kraken faithful each time he touched the puck – dimmed the noise a bit when he scored from mid-range to make it 3-1. Makar’s marker was his fourth of the year to accompany his 13 assists.

“Their top guys made it hard tonight,” said an even-keel Dave Hakstol after the game. “Those guys played a lot of minutes and they were on their game. At times, they had us off balance.”

Colorado’s Jonathan Drouin (assists by MacKinnon and Rantanen) made it 4-1 with 11 minutes remaining and Valeri Nichushkin scored off a MacKinnon assist to finish off a disappointing night at 5-1 visitors. Seattle (5-8-3) now heads to Edmonton for a rematch on Wednesday and their own chance for redemption after dropping a 4-1 decision to the Oilers here at home last Saturday.

‘Turbo’ Starts on Time

The cheers were manic – well, you might say Turbo-lent – when the game’s first goal was in the back of the Colorado net here at Climate Pledge Arena Monday. That’s because Brandon Tanev was the scorer in his first game back since the opening night, recovered from a lower-body injury perpetrated on an illegal hit by Vegas forward Brett Howden.

Tanev rushed the net to collect a loose puck when Colorado goalie Alexandar Georgiev couldn’t control the rebound on a Vince Dunn shot from the point. The Kraken forward and fan favorite down-geared enough to backhand the puck securely over the goal line. Minutes later, it appeared Tanev would notch his first assist of the year when Alex Wennberg tallied on the penalty kill. But Tanev proved a bit too exuberant and was called for goalie interference that nullified the goal, which would have been Wennberg’s first of the season.

But point-made by both Tanev and the Kraken coaching staff. The veteran of more than 400 NHL games played is inarguably a high-energy addition to any lineup drawn up by Dave Hakstol. But Tanev will tell you he looks to contribute on the offensive end too and he has the Seattle goals to make his case: 16 in 82 games last year and nine in 30 games (24-goal pace) during the inaugural season before a major injury felled him. To that end, Tanev played with Wennberg and Jared McCann during 5-on-5 play with Jaden Schwartz switching places with McCann by joining the Matty Beniers line.

Seattle assistant coach Dave Lowry, who oversees the penalty kill among other duties, was clearly happy to have number 13 back in the PK fold, pairing him with the ever-reliable shorthanded protector Wennberg. Give Tanev credit: He is always rapid-fire entertaining. Along with the goal and goaltender interference, Tanev was whistled for a tripping penalty and hit a post on his second shot attempt of the night, all in the first 20 minutes.

“It was nice to get Brandon Tanev back tonight,” said Hakstol. “We're hoping we'll get ‘Ebs’ [Jordan Eberle, who suffered a serious leg cut in practice last week] back sooner than later. We'll see where he's at for the next game.”

Daccord’s Night Tale of Two Halves

The Kraken logged double the shots of Colorado through the first half of Monday’s proceedings, 16 to 8 for good guys. But Kraken starting goalie Joey Daccord came up big to maintain the one-goal lead. His best save of the first 30 minutes could be debated: One option is his acrobatic split at the left post to spoil Avalanche forward Miles Wood’s attempt to push the puck into what a split-second before was a gaping open space. Another choice: Stopping a point-blank, in-close attempt by Colorado first-liner Valeri Nichushkin earlier in the second period.

Hakstol was positive about Daccord’s night: “His game was really good ... I thought his puck play was good and pretty clean. The biggest part of his game, he made a few big saves at the right time, even in the first period he didn't have really much work at all ... I thought he was sharp. I thought he was on his game.”

“When you are playing some of the best players in the world on the powerplay, the more chances you give them, the better the opportunity they're going to have,” said Brandon Tanev facing his first post-game media scrum of the regular season. “I think we left our goaltender out to dry. Joey made some fabulous saves, some 10-bell saves. Unfortunately, we weren't there to help him when we needed it.”

Fans sitting at the south end of the arena took to chanting, “Joey! Joey!” after those saves, a familiar occurrence to all those ardent Coachella Valley Firebirds fans who watched Daccord backstop the Kraken AHL affiliate to the Western Conference and come within one overtime goal of winning the Calder Cup title in Year 1 of the franchise.

But by the end of the second period, Colorado had reeled off 10 shots on net and tallied two goals, the second on a power play during which Daccord had already denied wide-open one-timers from both superstar captain Nathan MacKinnon and fellow first-liner Mikko Rantanen (who scored the first Avs goals for his 10^th of the year to go along with 10 assists in 14 games). Ross Colton, acquired in a summer trade with Tampa Bay, scored Colorado’s go-ahead goal, converting a Daccord rebound after the Kraken goaltender made a quality save on a Tomas Tatar tip on a Devon Toews shot from the point. In all, Daccord faced five Grade-A scoring attempts in the middle period.