The Seattle Kraken rode a home hot streak Sunday night as they welcomed the New York Rangers into town for the first time. New York was coming off a 4–0 shutout of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, while the Kraken tried to stretch their two-game winning streak to three games. One team left on a winning streak while the other ended theirs.
It seemed as though play would be more wild and exciting, as the Rangers took a 1–0 lead on a Chris Kreider goal just under four minutes into regulation play. Kreider skated right past a tired Joonas Donskoi, used the 2-on-1 with Mika Zibanejad as a decoy and snapped a shot past Philipp Grubauer’s glove for a 1–0 Rangers lead. Kreider also has a breakaway later in the period that Grubauer turned away. Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin was sensational the entire night and set the tone with several nice first period saves, as well.
That is where the scoring for the first period ended. The Kraken led in shots on goal, 9–8, once the period came to a close.
The second period was controlled heavily by the Kraken, who peppered Shesterkin with 13 shots on net. The Rangers only managed two shots on Grubauer. The Rangers’ netminder seemed on his way to a second straight shutout when Kraken forward Jordan Eberle tied the game at 1–1 13:46 into the middle frame.
Eberle threw a long backhand at Shesterkin and it seemed to fool the 25-year-old Russian goalie. This was his one, and only, mistake on the night.
Ebs’ backhander is *scary* good 😱 pic.twitter.com/dEik7fbRA4
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) November 1, 2021
The Kraken fans were treated to a tense third period for Halloween, as the home team continued to shower Shesterkin with shots. It was the Rangers, though, that broke the tie halfway through the third. Defenseman Adam Fox, fresh off his Norris Trophy-winning season, took a 2–1 lead for the visitors, which ultimately ended up boing the game-winning goal. Fox’s goal came just seconds after another huge stop by Shesterkin on the Rangers’ end.
Barclay Goodrow put the cherry on top of the Sunday sundae with an open net goal at the 18:21 mark of the third, and the Kraken fans were sent home with tricks rather than treats.
Anchor points
⚓ The power play is starting to be a concern for the Kraken. Their power play percentage is 30th overall, which will need to be much better if they plan on both making the playoffs and being a contender.
⚓ That said, the Kraken penalty kill has been really good. They are fourth overall on the penalty kill.
⚓ Other than the power play issues, the Kraken played a great game and just got “goalied.” They needed just a little more from Grubauer and the Rangers got more than they could have asked for from Shesterkin. These games happen.
⚓ Just about every 5-on-5 possession metric favored the Kraken. Corsi (shot attempts) and Fenwick (unblocked shots) were in the 59% range. Expected goals favored Seattle heavily at 64%. Face-offs favored Seattle 54% to 46%. Postgame, Head Coach Dave Hakstol said there were a lot of positives, and he was right. One more save from Grubauer and this game might have had a different final.
⚓The Kraken are right back in action on Monday against the Edmonton Oilers in Alberta. The puck drop is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. PDT.