Oleksiak helps Kraken rally past Islanders for 4th straight victory

SEATTLE -- Jamie Oleksiak broke a tie with 3:13 left in the third period, and the Seattle Kraken rallied to defeat the New York Islanders 3-2 at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday.

Oleksiak made it 3-2 when his point shot deflected off Islanders forward Brock Nelson’s left leg before the puck snuck under Ilya Sorokin's glove. New York challenged for goaltender interference, but the call on the ice stood after video review determined Brandon Tanev’s position in the crease did not impair Sorokin’s ability to play his position.

“I think we just stuck to what has been giving us success,” Oleksiak said. “Obviously, the (Yanni) Gourde-Tanev-(Tye) Kartye line has been really good for us, and on the game-winning goal, I didn’t do anything crazy. I just worked hard, got the puck at the point, got it to the net, and it went in for us.”

Yanni Gourde and Jared McCann also scored for the Kraken (9-8-1), who won their fourth in a row. Joey Daccord made 22 saves in winning his fourth straight start.

“You have to take your own bite by pounding it out, taking your chances when you can get them and drive it down to the other end,” Seattle coach Dan Bylsma said. “I thought the first period -- we talked about our starts -- we came out, and the first couple of swings were in our favor. We took the game to them, and they came back and took it to us a little bit. You just had to stay with it for 60 minutes to try to get a win in this one."

Nelson and Pierre Engvall scored for the Islanders (7-7-4), whose five-game point streak ended (3-0-2). Sorokin made 24 saves.

“I loved my team tonight,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “We played a strong game, played a solid road game. I thought we had our chances. I thought we possessed the puck. I thought we defended well, except before the second goal, where we had a bit of a miscommunication. But the first goal is bad luck. It hit their guy and went in the net, and the second goal, they made a great play, but at the same time, our coverage [could have been better], and I’m not going to talk about the third goal.”

Gourde gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 8:10 of the first period with his first goal of the season. After Tanev circled behind the Islanders net and sent the puck into the crease from the left side, it deflected in off Gourde at the right post while he was battling New York defenseman Isaiah George.

“Honestly it was challenging,” Gourde said of not scoring in the first 17 games. “It’s tough to be out there and feel like you don’t help out that much for your team to win games. There’s certainly other areas of my game that I thought were good, but offensively, I wanted to help out my team every single night, and I haven’t been able to do that. It was wearing on me, and getting the first one tonight felt really good.”

Engvall tied it 1-1 at 13:38, scoring for a second straight game. Dennis Cholowski kept the puck in at the blue line and fed Ryan Pulock, whose one-timer from the point was stopped by Daccord before Engvall scored on the rebound.

Ryker Evans nearly put Seattle in front at 14:43 of the second period when his wrist shot through traffic from the top of the left face-off circle hit the post.

Nelson gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead with a short-handed goal at 4:49 of the third. After Noah Dobson sent the puck to Nelson along the left boards from the defensive zone, Nelson cut to the net, toe-dragged and knocked the puck in after Daccord nearly poked it away.

McCann tied it 2-2 37 seconds later, scoring from the high slot on the rush at 5:26.

After Oleksiak put Seattle in front, Daccord stopped Nelson with the blocker on a short-handed breakaway with 1:56 remaining.

“It was a little frustrating,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “We got the lead, and they made a good play to tie it up, no doubt, but it’s a bumper that they got a break [on] from a point shot. I thought that in the second half of the game, we were really in control. We had a lot of good looks. Nelson had a breakaway. Our game was there. It just didn’t come out on our end tonight.”

NOTES: Daccord has made 99 saves on 107 shots (.925 save percentage) during his winning streak. ... McCann extended his point streak to five games (four goals, three assists). … Tanev ran his point streak to four games (four goals, two assists). ... Forward Daniel Sprong was minus-1 and played 10:55 in his first game for the Kraken since being reacquired in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 8. Sprong played 82 games over two seasons for Seattle from 2021-23. … Sorokin has lost his past three games (0-1-2).