By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA – As the clock hit triple zeroes to end regulation, the way things had played out felt disappointingly similar to the last game the Seattle Kraken had played, as they lost another tightly contested battle to a tough opponent. The Kraken fell 4-3 in overtime to the Dallas Stars, a top team in the Western Conference, in the first of two games that the teams will play in a span of three days. Seattle battled hard, just as they had against Ottawa, but still couldn’t put the finishing touches on these intense battles that they’re having in the late months of the regular season. Seattle has proven that they can hang with the best teams in the league when they’re on their game, including the Boston Bruins, but they still cannot seem to be able to shut the door to secure the key two points. With their overtime point, the Kraken remain in third place in the Pacific Division, three points behind Los Angeles and five behind Las Vegas.  

Stars lasso a win from the tentacles of the Kraken

If you were to lay out the games Seattle played at home against Boston, Ottawa, and Dallas, they are all largely similar outside of some tweaks here and there. All three of them hotly contested battles have been against quality opponents, coming down to the Kraken failing to hold on to a late lead/find a way to put the final nail in their opponents coffin. Seattle, obviously still only in their second year as a franchise, have experienced numerous growing pains throughout the season but have been able to learn from them enough to adjust and move forward in somewhat decent time. Ironically enough, one of those pains that they had “grown” out of came back to bite the Kraken, as Seattle saw their seven-game win streak in games decided in the overtime period come to a heartbreaking end.

The Kraken begrudgingly took the game to overtime; having blown the late lead they had taken on an Oliver Bjorkstrand power play goal, when they allowed a score with 1:10 to play in period three. Sure, the one point gained because of how the game was going to overtime is nice, but Seattle knew that they had a win and had watched it wash away like high tide was coming in. After going winless in their first three overtime games to start the season, the Kraken heavily practiced their three-on-three play in order to be better prepared for that situation. Seattle then proceeded to win the next seven games decided in the overtime period, finding different ways in “free hockey” to secure that extra point. That streak came to a halt tonight, as even though Seattle had the higher possession of the puck in overtime by far, they couldn’t get a good look on Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger.

Seattle won the opening faceoff, a large part in why they had much more possession in overtime, but it only took Dallas one chance with the puck to end things. The Stars nearly squandered their opportunity, as Evgenii Dadanov was nearly pickpocketed by Seattle’s Jaden Schwartz. Dadanov was able to muscle the puck away to find Max Domi awaiting his pass at the edge of the left faceoff circle, where he would catch the Kraken up ice (having tried to springboard off of the potential of that almost-Schwartz steal) and saucer a pass to a trailing Miro Heiskanen. Heiskanen had the puck land perfectly on the blade of his stick, and that was all she wrote. A collective sigh filed Climate Pledge Arena, as the Kraken dropped their second straight game of this three-game homestand.

Didn’t create a damn in front of Otter

Simply put, outside of their first two goals of the game, the Kraken did not do enough net front and around the crease to disrupt Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger. This could be said for most all of Seattle’s games, as they generally like a solid and consistent presence net front to disrupt, get tip ins, and create grimy, greasy, waste management level filthy goals, but especially so against Oettinger. The 24-year-old goaltender is simply too good to continuously fire away at with one-timers, especially ones that he has clear lines of sight on. While Seattle has some serious shot making talent amongst their forwards, it just isn’t smart to think that you’re going to beat a goaltender like Oettinger cleanly on shots as such, yet Seattle failed to get bodies in front of him to either get sticks on pucks to deflect or to cause general chaos in front of the net. It’s a bit funny, as the first two goals that I mentioned that Seattle scored were great examples of what the team SHOULD be doing.

The first goal came on a tip as Matty Beniers redirected a puck from Vince Dunn at the blue line, and on that goal it could have even been Jordan Eberle who tipped it in as both forwards were net front. On the second goal, Carson Soucy sent a puck in from the blue line after Dallas failed to clear the puck out of their zone, as a loose stick on the ice prevented a Stars puck from cycling the boards. Seattle took advantage, got the puck up to Soucy, who sent it towards the net where Daniel Sprong and Ryan Donato awaited. The two fourth liners battled hard to maintain their positioning, as Sprong was actually hit with Soucy’s puck before he fired away at it on Oettinger. Dallas’ goaltender had no idea where the puck was, as it bounced off of his right leg pad and skittered out to Ryan Donato. Surrounded by Stars, even though he isn’t a constellation, Donato hacked at the puck like he was playing whack a mole at Gameworks downtown. Oettinger, still looking around for the puck with his head on a frantic swivel, never saw it coming, and Seattle had tied the score at two.

Donato’s delivery strikes back in return to lineup

Having been healthy scratched the last two games, Kraken forward Ryan Donato made a major mark on tonight’s game as his knack for scoring “the big goal” came into play once again tonight. As previously mentioned, Donato scored the tying goal around the halfway mark of the third period on that greasy goal due to the chaos caused around the crease. Donato’s impact in this game, although minimal in terms of shots (only two, which does include his goal), is simply another footnote in the book that could be put together on Seattle’s forward depth seen this season. Getting production and pressure from all four lines top to bottom continues to be a factor in why the Kraken are in the current playoff position that they hold, and the team still gets to add still-injured forward Andre Burakovsky to the lineup again at some point in the near future. Tough decisions are made every game by the Seattle coaching staff on who to healthy scratch, so with at least one of the forwards having to be kept in street clothes each night for the time being, it’s about getting the most out of who you start that particular night.

Kraken still trying to fit into “playoff potential” mold in only year two

The large note that I have taken away from the Bruins, Senators, and Stars home games in these past few months is that the Kraken continue to belong atop the standings with the “big dogs,” they just aren’t a complete product yet. That should be obvious, but it’s more of a positive takeaway in my eyes than a negative one. There are numerous factors in this game that could have given you a negative connotation heading into puck drop, such as Philipp Grubauer being overworked as he got his fifth start in a row and sixth game in a row overall (Grubauer still played damn good, just still dealing with those lapses), Dallas coming off of a ten-goal game, etc. Dallas’ highly talented roster looked great for the large majority of the night, but on the other hand the Kraken were able to play some pretty sound defense as they kept their sticks active and remained sturdy in their structure. While I did complain about Seattle’s net front presence tonight, those two goals that they had were solid and an example of what they need to do.

Again, I know how tight the race is. I know that the team has an excellent opportunity to reach the postseason and many want the Kraken to go all out to make it. With those things being taken into account, Seattle has taken great strides as a group to improve and get to this position in the first place. For the most part, the Kraken have been able to acknowledge the issues that they have and then improve upon them so that the issue is not apparent anymore, like the overtime struggles (prior to tonight, at least). When all things are said and done this season, you should be PROUD of this hockey team and where they are at only two years into their existence. Wherever they end up from here on out is a success for the franchise and it’s future. But, for now, it’s March and this team has a chance to secure a playoff berth and even climb higher in the standings. It won’t be easy to accomplish either of those things, but this team has shown their fight and resiliency before. Seattle’s voyage is far from over this campaign, and the latter third of their journey is sure to be filled with goal-horn filled fun.

Seattle forward Alex Wennberg recorded his 300th career point in the game, on Oliver Bjorkstrand’s goal (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)

Quick notes

• With his assist on Jordan Eberle's goal, Vince Dunn extended his point streak to nine games, totaling 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) during that span.

  • His nine-game point streak ties both his personal best (set Jan. 5 to 19, 2023) and the franchise record for most consecutive games played with a point.

  • Dating back to Jan. 1, Dunn has scored 34 points in 32 games played.

  • Dunn's nine-game point streak is the second-longest active point streak in the NHL as of Saturday night and the longest by a defenseman.

  • With his assist tonight, Dunn became the first defenseman to have two separate nine-game point streaks in the same season since Mike Green did so for the Washington Capitals in 2009-10 according to NHL Stats.

• Alex Wennberg reached his 300th NHL point tonight with his assist on Oliver Bjorkstrand's goal. He is now the 22nd active, Swedish skater and the 11th player from the 2013 draft class to total at least 300 career points.

• Matty Beniers scored his 12th point (two goals, 10 assists) in his last 12 games played with an assist on Eberle's goal.

  • Beniers scored his 20th goal of the season tonight

• Daniel Sprong's assist on Ryan Donato's goal gets him his fifth point in as many games played (one goal, four assists).

• Tonight marks former Star Jamie Oleksiak's 500th career game.

• The Kraken went 1-for-1 on the penalty kill tonight, and since Feb. 14, the Kraken have gone 31-for-32 on the penalty kill. 

  • Seattle has killed it’s last 30 penalties at home

Kraken rookie forward added an assist in the game, continuing his push for the NHL’s Calder trophy (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)

What’s next?

Seattle will have a team day off to get away from the rink before these two teams face off in the rematch on Monday, March 13th inside of Climate Pledge Arena with a puck drop of 7PM PST. Knowing the issues that resulted in their defeat, the Kraken locker room seemed eager and ready post game to get back to work immediately following the loss, so this game already seems like it’s going to have that “big fight feel.” It will be the second of three meetings this season between the Kraken and Stars, and all of those encounters between those two teams take place within the month of March. When the teams meet on Monday, Seattle will be celebrating it’s “Pride night,” their second to last Hockey is for Everyone night of the season.  

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