The Kraken paid homage to their own Yanni Gourde on his bobblehead night by winning an extremely chaotic game. We’re going to go through this one bit by bit because frankly, it was bonkers.
FIRST PERIOD
the Sharks scored first, which is something of a novelty for Seattle this season (how nice is that?) It came at the hands of Logan Couture, who deflected a shot from Nick Cicek a little over four minutes into the contest. The game then turned extremely not-normal, as Kraken games tend to do. First, both teams took too-many-men penalties less than two minutes apart. Then the Sharks’ Matt Benning got hauled off for a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass — from his own zone all the way over the head of Martin Jones. On the ensuing 5-on-3, André Burakovsky sniped the Kraken’s opening goal.
The Sharks then retook the lead via a 4-on-3 goal from Timo Meier while Adam Larsson sat in the box, wrongfully convicted of a hooking penalty. This tic-tac-toe goal was a blunt reminder that even though the Sharks aren’t an overall good team, the top half a dozen skaters are not to be trifled with.
SECOND PERIOD
Seattle took their first lead of the game with a flurry of goals early on in the middle period. First it was Vince Dunn, who sent home a gorgeous pass from Matty Beniers.
A mere 70 seconds later it was the fourth line once again producing, as they have done so often this year. Ryan Donato got a much-needed goal, his first since October 19th, but it was the hardworking forecheck by Daniel Sprong that set this one up. Once again, a pass from below the goal line is what sets up the Kraken goal.
Only a few minutes later, it was Big Rig Jamie Oleksiak getting on the board during a delayed penalty. Seattle did a fantastic job playing keep-away long enough to set up this chance, and a nice pass from Justin Schultz made it an easy tap in for Oleksiak.
They wouldn’t quite take the two-goal lead into the locker room, however, because Timo Meier is really good. I wish he weren’t, but he is. A partial breakaway and a great shot beat Martin Jones to make it 4-3 heading into the third.
THIRD PERIOD
For those keeping track, we’re at seven total goals through two periods. That’s slightly more than halfway to the game’s eventual total tally.
Alexander Barbanov tied the game one minute into the third with the San Jose’s second deflection goal of the night. That’s four goals allowed for Jones now — two of them deflections, one a perfect shot from Meier, and one on a 4-on-3 one-timer. Weirdly, he was still having a fairly decent game at this point despite having given up four goals.
Thankfully Kraken fans didn’t have to sweat the tie game for long, because Oliver Bjorkstrand finally scored his second of the season. Despite playing quite well so far this year, none of his shots seem to want to go in. We were rapidly approaching 2021-22 Joonas Donskoi levels of cursed, but he broke it open with a patient deke to beat Kaapo Kahkonen. Perhaps we see him playing alongside Yanni Gourde and Brandon Tanev a bit more going forward.
While some of us were still appreciating Bjorky’s sick moves, Jaden Schwartz put in what appeared to be the insurance goal for Seattle. It was all set up by a defensive zone takeaway from Matty Beniers, who earned his second assist of the night on this one.
But just when you thought a lead was safe, the Sharks came storming back. Timo Meier (you might remember him from such films as Sharks Goal II and Sharks Goal III) completed the hat trick with a casual tap-in on a great Kevin Leblanc pass. We’re back to a one-goal game.
But not for long!
Matty Beniers called game with just under five minutes to play, earning himself the first 3-point night of his young career (and the second multi-point night in a row) and cellied so hard he lost his lid.
Jaden Schwartz got his second of the night with the empty netter in the final minute and the final score of this one ended up 8-5 in favor of our Squids, who defend their title as the true kings of the ocean.
Notes
It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow, so the Kraken will get a day off before heading to Vegas to take on the Golden Knights on Friday. They’re in the middle of a 5-game stretch of Pacific Division opponents, and so far they’re 2-0. We’ll see if they can continue the streak on Friday at 5pm.
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