Daccord makes 24 saves, Kraken shut out Predators

SEATTLE -- Joey Daccord made 24 saves for the Seattle Kraken in a 3-0 win against the Nashville Predators at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday.

“I was disappointed [Daccord] didn’t get the shutout in [a 3-2 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday], just because of how well he’s been playing,” Seattle coach Dan Bylsma said. “And tonight, it was gratifying to see him get the shutout just to accent how well he’s played.”

Brandon Montour had a goal and an assist, and Chandler Stephenson had three assists for the Kraken (10-9-1), who have won five of their past six. Daccord’s shutout was his first of the season and fourth in the NHL.

“I think, obviously, things are just kind of working right now and everybody’s contributing,” Stephenson said. “Everybody’s been digging in and helping the team win.”

Juuse Saros made 33 saves for the Predators (6-11-3), who closed out their five-game road trip with a 1-2-2 record. It was the fourth time Nashville has been shut out this season and second time in the past three games.

“I thought we played with some pretty good pace,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “Obviously, scoring is hard to come by right now. Our margins for mistakes are so small, and I thought we had some stretches where we looked like us and created a little bit, failed to get on the inside, and we made some catastrophic mistakes that really hurt us right now.”

Daniel Sprong gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 15:55 of the second period, tapping in Stephenson's slick backhand feed at the top of the crease into an open net behind Saros. It was Sprong’s first goal in this third game since being reacquired by Seattle in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 8.

“I've scored in this building a good amount of goals and I've had a lot of success here,” Sprong said. “So it was nice to have a good practice yesterday, get back into that speed, and have a full gameday routine with a morning skate and everything and feel myself again.”

Montour pushed it to 2-0 just 23 seconds into the third period, redirecting Stephenson’s centering pass over Saros’ outstretched left pad on the rush.

“As soon as [Montour] gave it to me and ripped over the blue line, he said, ‘Yeah,’ he was calling for it,” Stephenson said. “He turned on the burners and I just kind of delayed there for him. And so it worked out.”

Tommy Novak appeared to cut it to 2-1 at 10:39, but video review confirmed a clear kicking motion as he tried to put in a centering pass from Alexandre Carrier at the top of the crease.

Yanni Gourde added an empty-net goal at 17:17 for the 3-0 final.

“Something’s obviously got to change if we want to get out of this hole,” Predators forward Ryan O'Reilly said. “We’ve got to put the puck on net.”

NOTE: This is Sprong’s second stint with the Kraken. He had 52 points (27 goals, 25 assists) in 82 games in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.