Welcome to the final two games of the season! What a nice way to ring it in!
But first, the Highlights!:
Game Notes:
- Your TOI Leader for tonight was Jamie Oleksiak, with 23:52 logged.
- The Kraken actually started this game slowly, giving the really unfortunate impression that they’d be sleepwalking through this one. Then the 2nd period happened, wherein the Kraken all at once came to the realization just who they were playing, and must have said “Oh my god, we should be killing these guys!” and responded promptly. You’ll see it in the charts, they did not want the Coyotes getting their hopes up after a certain point.
- While it took a minute, the Kraken and Coyotes had a big ol’ dust-up in the third period; Carson Soucy and Arizona’s McBain locked horns, and Liam O’Brien taking a matching roughing penalty against Yanni Gourde. This was a continuing of the theme the Coyotes have been running of being pointlessly aggressive to the Kraken.
- Maybe the issue the Coyotes took was that Seattle fans found it easy to travel to Arizona for games. There were a lot of “LETS GO KRA-KEN” chants at Mullett Arena tonight, and I imagine that’s got to sting when you’re already down quite a bit.
- Philipp Grubauer had a .957 SV% tonight, but the real story of course, is the success that ASU’s hockey program created one Joey Daccord, who was allowed to play the final 90 seconds of the game. He faced no shots, but he got to see that at least one program in Tempe, one that he was a part of, is actually developing and growing into something special. That’s just a real fuzzy, feel-good story; good on the coaches for making that happen.
Let’s give a Hand to:
- Jared McCann of course, who had two points tonight; one of whom was his 40th goal. Just an absolutely incredible season he’s had for Seattle.
- Matty Beniers who got his 24th goal of the season, but not only that, avoided taking a penalty that could cut into his serious contention for the Lady Byng. As it turns out, Matty B has been a strong candidate for it all year, and it would be a shame for him to get suckered into doing something stupid so late in the game.
- Oliver Bjorkstrand! Who got his 20th goal this season and kicked off the scoring for Seattle. It took him a little while but it seems like he’s finally found a rhythm to make this team sing!
- Philipp Grubauer, who bounced back from a pretty bad first goal to be lights out the rest of the night.
- The Seattle fans who made it to Mullett Arena, for being passionate enough to enable Arizona professional hockey just to see the Kraken. You guys rock.
Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win.
Let’s re-live this victory with some charts from NaturalStatTrick.com!
The Kraken get no rest, as they begin the home-and-home with the Knights tonight at 7pm PT in Vegas.
We’ll see how they respond, and we will see you there!
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