Gourde scores twice for Kraken in win against Flyers

SEATTLE -- Yanni Gourde had two goals an assist for the Seattle Kraken in a 6-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.

It was Gourde's first two goals since Jan. 10 (15 games). He hadn't had a multigoal game since March 7, 2021.
"Thanks for the reminder," Gourde said. "I think it's good. It's good to get some confidence. It's good to shoot the puck and get the puck going, and it's always good to score a few goals going forward.
"But at the same time, don't change the way you play. Just play hard and play your game and good things happen.''

Matty Beniers and Justin Schultz each had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Eberle had two assists for the Kraken (31-18-6), who played at home for the first time since Jan. 28. They went 1-3-1 on a five-game road trip following the All-Star break.
Philipp Grubauer made 17 saves.
"I thought we played faster than the last few games on the road," Gourde said. "I thought we were checking a little bit better, even in the neutral zone. They weren't coming through the middle of the ice and in the neutral zone. I think that's the big key."
Travis Konecny scored twice, and Noah Cates had two assists for the Flyers (22-24-10), who began a four-game road trip. Carter Hart allowed four goals on 19 shots before being relieved in the second period by Samuel Ersson, who made nine saves.
"It was probably our worst game of the year, I'd say," Philadelphia forward James van Riemsdyk said. "[We] didn't do a lot of good things at all and really left our goalies out to dry a few times. [It's] definitely disappointing, so let's have a good response our next game (at the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday)."
Seattle won 4-3 at Philadelphia on Sunday.
"We just weren't very sharp," van Riemsdyk said. "I don't know what we want to blame it on, if it's the travel or we just weren't ready or whatever. … Again, that's twice in a row obviously against a good team, and we didn't respond nearly well enough."
Jared McCann gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal at 3:01 of the first period. He stripped Kevin Hayes of the puck in the defensive zone, skated down the right wing and fired a wrist shot past Hart.

Gourde made it 2-0 at 14:39 when he redirected Schultz's shot from beyond the face-off circles.
The Kraken set a franchise record when they held the Flyers to one shot on goal in the first (12-1).
"It's pretty self-explanatory what you saw out there, so you really don't need my comments," Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. " … I am not going to talk about my hockey team after a performance like this. It doesn't do me any good, it doesn't do the team any good. Those are the people I'm most concerned about."
Schultz scored on a power play at 5:52 of the second period, a one-timer from Matty Beniers to make it 3-0. The assist was Beniers' first point in 11 games.
"The biggest goal, in my mind, was Schultz on the power-play goal," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "You knew there was going to be a response after the first period. They had a response, and that power-play goal settled things down for us."

Oliver Bjorkstrand made it 4-0 on a breakaway at 11:26. Ersson relieved Hart after the goal.
Gourde one-timed a shot from between the circles for a power-play goal at 14:43 to give the Kraken a 5-0 lead.
''He does it all, every game all year,'' McCann said. ''There's a reason he's got back-to-back Stanley Cups (with the Tampa Bay Lightning). That's the guy that we need to watch and need to learn from.''
Konecny scored his 25th goal of the season 14 seconds into the third period to make it 5-1, but Beniers gave Seattle a 6-1 lead at 10:37 with a wrist shot from the left circle.
Konecny scored again at 14:11 for the 6-2 final.
''We've got to show up with everybody and go out and play well as a group to have a chance to win,'' Hakstol said. ''We were ready to play tonight.''
NOTES:The Kraken are the second team this season to allow one shot on goal in the first period; the Carolina Hurricanes outshot the Arizona Coyotes 14-1 in a 4-0 win on Nov. 23. … Konecny has set an NHL career high with 26 goals. He scored 24 three times (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20). He is the first Flyers player to reach 50 points in 50 or fewer games since Claude Giroux in 2018-19 (46).