The Kraken welcomed forward Colin Blackwell to the lineup after starting the season on the injured reserve list.

The star of this game was Wild center Rem Pitlick. He had a natural hat trick and the only three goals of the game headed into the third period. Seattle started off really slow with only three shots on net in the first period, but were only down by one goal.

Pitlick scored two more in the second period despite the Kraken leading in shots on goal, 13–9.

The third period ended up slightly more exciting, as Marcus Johansson scored a power play goal halfway through the final period to break the shutout and cut the lead to two goals.

Jojo scores his first goal as a #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/KMoqhUvyTK

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) November 14, 2021

Nico Sturm added an easy empty-net goal with five minutes remaining as Head Coach Dave Hakstol used the rarely successful “Pull the goalie with over five minutes remaining and down by two goals” maneuver.

Alexander Wennberg scored a late goal for the Kraken with one minute remaining in the game, but it was far too little, far too late. The shot total favored Seattle 30–22, but the final score was 4–2.

Anchor points

Goaltending! Goaltending! Goaltending! It looks like Hakstol is just going to keep throwing Philipp Grubauer out there to struggle until he works it out on the ice. The rule of thumb is that giving up less than 25 shots in a game should put you in a position to win. The truth is that Seattle was not really ever in this game. If you check the heat map, all five of the non-empty-net goals were in the high-danger area. This is where the game was won/lost. I will concede that two of the goals were breakaways, but Pitlick made the same exact move on both.

That said, who could have predicted that a 24-year-old center playing in his 16th NHL game ever would score all the goals the Wild needed with a natural hat trick before the second intermission? No one. He had three goals on three shots in only 12:53 time on ice.

The good news is that the Kraken scored on the power play. Baby steps. This pulled them out of the basement for the worst power play, putting them ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins by 1.8%.

Analytics, once again, favored the Kraken. They led 5-on-5 in shot attempts (Corsi 54%–46%), unblocked shots (Fenwick 57%–43%), high-danger chances for (HDCF% 64%–37%) and expected goal for (xGF% 56%–44%). This all tells you one thing: Goaltending is still the reason for their demise.

The only line that was negative in possession was the Wennberg, Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz line, which was at 35% for on-ice even strength Corsi.

The Kraken are off until Wednesday when they host the Chicago Blackhawks for the first time at Climate Pledge Arena. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. PST.

The post RECAP: Kraken drop fourth straight in 4–2 loss to Wild appeared first on The Rink.

After starting off their previous game with a quick lead, the Kraken surrendered the lead just under seven minutes into play. Wild wing Ryan Hartman found a soft spot in the slot area and snapped a seeing-eye pass from phenom Kirill Kaprizov past a surprised Philipp Grubauer. Kraken wing Calle Jarnkrok actually had Hartman covered well, but the former Chicago Blackhawk was still able to get the shot off.

The Wild then thought they took a 2–0 lead, but the goal was waved off for high-sticking, keeping the margin at one.

This game may become the “Haydn Fleury Coming Out Game” because the defenseman had both the game-tying and game-winning goals for Seattle. Fleury scored his first with just under seven minutes remaining in the first period. Fleury found an errant Jaden Schwartz centering pass and one-timed the puck past a surprised Cam Talbot for his first goal as a member of the Kraken.

The first period ended with the score tied at 1–1, as the Kraken led in shots 13–10.

The second period is where momentum opened up for the home team. They peppered Talbot with 17 shots while only surrendering five. Fleury scored his second of the night just over seven minutes into the middle frame from an unlikely spot. He took a pass from Ryan Donato and faked a long shot. Fleury then wheeled around a defender and was stopped by Talbot, but picked up the rebound and wrapped the puck around the far post. The skill that Fleury displayed on this particular sequence is what the Carolina Hurricanes saw in the young defenseman when they drafted him seventh overall in 2014.

Two-goal night for Haydn Fleury pic.twitter.com/30AMJQuPGz

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 29, 2021

Fleury’s nifty tally gave Seattle a lead that they never relinquished.

If not for the heroics of Talbot, the Kraken may have really ran the score up on the Wild, but the veteran goalie kept the game within reach for Minnesota. That said, the third period was mostly controlled by the visitors, as they outshot Seattle 16–8.

The score, however, remained 2–1 until the final minutes of regulation. Brandon Tanev and Mark Giordano added late empty-net goals to make the game look more lopsided than it actually was, but it ended up another two points and a tally in the win column for the home team.

Anchor points

The Kraken had a solid possession game, with only Jordan Eberle and Jamie Oleksiak under 50% in 5-on-5 Corsi.

Philipp Grubauer was very good, once again. He stopped 30 of 31 shots and held the narrow Kraken lead long enough for the two late empty-net goals.

The Kraken continue to have success by pushing shots to the slot. Based on their team makeup, this is probably the right focus. High danger chances were 10–4 at 5-on-5 in favor of the Kraken.

Joonas Donskoi has been snake-bitten lately. He continues to make plays and go hard to the net, though. Sooner or later, the flood gates will open.

The Kraken will get back to the grind on Sunday, as they host the New York Rangers at Climate Pledge Arena for a Halloween tilt. The puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m. PDT.

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