Kraken score 8 against Coyotes, gain in Western wild card race

Jared McCann scored two goals for the Seattle Kraken, who gained ground in the Western Conference wild card race with an 8-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Monday.

Carson Soucy, Morgan Geekie and Ryan Donato each had a goal and an assist for the Kraken (42-26-8). Philipp Grubauer made 20 saves.
Seattle moved three points ahead of the Winnipeg Jets, who have played one more game, for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West.
"Every two points is big," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "We talk about it all the time. You don't look too far back and you don't look too far forward. You just worry about working and doing what you have to do to get two points and the score doesn't matter."

Lawson Crouse scored for the Coyotes (27-38-13), who have lost eight in a row (0-6-2). Ivan Prosvetov, who has allowed 15 goals in his past two starts, made 24 saves.
"He didn't make a difference," Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said of Prosvetov. "We needed him to stop the bleeding and he couldn't get it done."
Jordan Eberle gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 4:54 of the first period, redirecting Daniel Sprong's centering pass from the slot.
"We're moving the puck well, we're getting pucks on the net, we're playing with confidence on the power play," said Sprong, who had two assists. "We're taking the chances we need, the looks are there, and we're capitalizing on it. It's good momentum for us, especially near the end of the year."

McCann made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 15:07
Crouse cut it to 2-1 at 4:44 of the second period with a one-timer into an open net off a backdoor pass from Matias Maccelli.
"We said, `We've got to stay on it. We can't let up,'" McCann said. "We have a tendency to kind of back up (with a lead) and kind of play defensive, and that puts us in the soup sometimes. So we did a good job of staying on [it]."
Soucy responded for Seattle to make it 3-1 at 11:58. He scored five-hole from the left circle off a cross-ice pass from Sprong.
"I think we just did a good job learning where their weaknesses are, where we can use our skill, use our speed," Soucy said. "Throughout the game, we just kept getting better and better all night."
McCann made it 4-1 at 15:03, toe-dragging Juuso Valimaki before scoring blocker side from the high slot on a rush.

Will Borgen pushed it to 5-1 at 1:18 of the third period, and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored from a sharp angle along the right boards to make it 6-1 at 11:01.
"I think we had a good pace, we had good pressure, we did a lot of good things," Tourigny said. "We were generating good scoring chances, quality chances in the first two [periods], but then in the third they started scoring right away and it was tough."
Geekie made it 7-1 at 18:05, kicking a rebound to his stick and scoring with a backhand on a power play.
Donato scored glove side on a 2-on-1 from the right circle at 19:33 for the 8-1 final.
"Those two points were huge," Soucy said. "I think we did a good job of keeping our foot on the gas and closing it out. When it was tight there for a bit, we did a good job of focusing on what we needed to do to just kind of wear them down."
NOTES: Sprong has 42 points (20 goals, 22 assists) in 60 games this season. He had 40 points (27 goals, 13 assists) in 105 games in his previous two seasons combined. … The Coyotes' next game is also in Seattle on Thursday. They have been outscored 20-5 in their past three games and are 20-for-33 on the penalty kill (60.6 percent) in their past seven.