Hockey Karma Unfolds
As karmic experiences go, the Bjorkstrand was a bit of payback fortune with Vince Dunn’s shot caroming off a San Jose defender and landing on “The Maestro’s” stick blade net-front (OK, I don’t typically call Bjorkstrand by his nickname but with Kraken Hockey Network play-by-play man John Forslund on a mini-furlough due to an ESPN national game, somebody’s gotta do it). The San Jose goal in the period was redirected past winning goalie Joey Daccord via the skate of fellow future core teammate Shane Wright, who was doing his job as a two-way center defending deep in the Kraken zone. It's just a bad bounce, and Dunn got it back, whether you concur on the karmic reference or not. For those scoring response goals at home or, ahem, in the KHN studios (that would be esteemed Kraken colleague Alison Lukan), the Bjorkstrand/Montour scores were indeed response goals, beating the two-minute span by more than a minute.
So, can we agree, pretty solid response to the Sharks getting even late first period? For good measure, the Kraken scored twice more before the eight-minute mark, including the second score from Montour.
“It's been a little cold, I don't even know, the last 15, 20 games,” said Montour. “But you keep creating. You get in cold spells. You try to find other ways to help the team. It’s just nice to kind of get a couple, hopefully a couple more keep coming.
“I think we kept the energy going with big plays at times when we needed them. The physicality was good, obviously, Dunner was key with a scrap to kind of keep going and protect each other, which is obviously huge and what we need to be good moving forward ... We just kept it up shift by shift. Get one, you get two, you get three, you get four. Big plays one after another. When you do that, it's a dangerous hockey club.”
Let’s Call It a Schwartz Revenge Goal
More karma on the fourth goal: Jaden Schwartz whistled off at 3:47 for a what he did not believe was a hooking penalty drawn (or not drawn if you side with Schwartz and what the aforementioned Forslund calls the “unpaid officials” in the stands) by Sharks forward Mikael Granlund. Five seconds after he exited the penalty box after a spotless penalty kill, Jamie Oleksiak executed a final clear of San Jose pressure and Schwartz raced to the puck to succeed on a breakaway because he held onto the puck just one beat longer than 22-year-old San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov anticipated, with the Seattle alternate captain slipped a goal between Askraov leg pads. The fourth goal ended Askarov’s night, pulled in favor of former Colorado and New York Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgie. What goes round, or least what sends Schwartz likely unfairly to the penalty box, comes round: 4-1 Kraken.