Jordan Eberle Hot-N-Ready overtime winner puts Kraken over Red Wings to open road trip
By Charles Hamaker
Detroit, MI – Coming off an ugly loss just a few days ago that seemed to question their toughness and effort level, the Seattle Kraken have responded with an overtime victory against the Detroit Red Wings. It was no easy feat for Seattle to come into Detroit and topple a Red Wings team that has been one of the best in the NHL in this early stretch of the season, but the Kraken were able to dominate the majority of the statistics in this win. It’s just the start of a tough road trip for Seattle but given their performance and the positives that came with it, the Kraken have things to build off going forward as they look to get their season back on track.
First half fire
Featuring a Seattle side that was looking to inject some life back into their game after a miserable loss to the Rangers this past Saturday and a Detroit team that came into this game winning five of their first six, there was plenty of action in the first frame. Both teams narrowly missed out on goals, trading rushes, and coming so close to getting on the board. It was a physical one from the start as well, as both teams looked to impose themselves against the other. This first frame displayed what was coming in this game, a physical and fast contest between two teams that have the depth in scoring to light the barn on fire.
Seattle’s resilience on display in the second frame
Quickly into the second period, Detroit was able to get traffic out in front of Joey Daccord, helping to score a tip in from Red Wings center Joe Veleno. The Kraken had conceded first, and they needed to answer considering their loss on Saturday plus how their season has been going so far. That seemed difficult to do after Detroit got a power play shortly after that goal, but Seattle was able to survive before getting a power play of their own. Four minutes after the Veleno score, Vince Dunn did some geometry, sending a puck off the boards that came right towards Jaden Schwartz in front of the net to poke it past Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso to equalize. With the pressure that Seattle had generated in the game leading into this, the Kraken finally had a result with that Schwartz power play goal.
The Kraken kept things moving following their power play goal, as Husso got out of his own crease as Jared McCann tried to sneak a poke past him, and it was clear that Seattle wanted more. The Kraken continued to push for that next goal, but it wouldn’t come until the period had nearly ended. With their top defenseman pairing of Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson needing a change, Alex Wennberg helped the Kraken get out of their zone and sent a pass off the boards up to Jaden Schwartz in a two-on-one situation. With space, Schwartz blasted a shot past Husso to give his team the lead and put himself on hat trick watch. With chaos taking place after that as Detroit pushed to find an equalizer, Brian Dumoulin sent a puck up the ice to Tye Kartye who had found space in behind the Detroit defense. Kartye went forehead, over the blocker side of Husso, giving Seattle their second goal in a matter of just over a minute and sending them into the second intermission with a solid lead.
Detroit doesn’t go down easy
The third period began with a Detroit power play early on, and the Red Wings were able to get a Shayne Gostisbehere one-timer wide-open to score their second goal of the night. The Red Wings had continued to push, and off a faceoff win Mo Seider put Seattle’s Jamie Oleksiak in a tough position: respect Seider’s shot or get over and try to negate Gostisbehere, and ultimately it was the prior that he decided to go with, resulting in the Gostisbehere goal. A little over two minutes later, Detroit went on the man advantage again but this time for a double minor as Devin Shore was called for high sticking. It only took 21 seconds for the Red Wings to capitalize, as Shane Larkin found just enough room down below as he elevated a puck top shelf to tie the game up. Things were headed in the direction of Detroit, including the fact that they still had two minutes left on the power play after the Larkin goal thanks to the fact that the penalty on Shore was a double minor.
The Red Wings continued to ride the momentum of this game, scoring their third goal on a power play in this contest as Alex DeBrincat continued his hot start to the season. Detroit was spreading the puck around their power play unit, getting it out to DeBrincat on the flank to Joey Daccord’s right hand side. Daccord was a slight bit late getting to the other side of his net and was beat cleanly on his glove side. Seattle had gone down once again, and the Kraken needed an equalizer to ensure that they weren’t going to drop points once again as we approach the time of the year where eventual playoff teams need results. A power play in the final few minutes gave the Kraken the sort of opening that they needed, as former Seattle skater Daniel Sprong boarded Tye Kartye. Their first effort on the man advantage was unsuccessful, but Detroit captain Dylan Larkin hooked Jared McCann to give the Kraken a power play that would last the rest of regulation (1:48 was left on the game clock).
“We played well, just obviously gave them too many opportunities on the power play, and their power play is just lethal right now.”
With Joey Daccord off the ice for a sixth skater, Seattle needed to maintain possession of the puck and win their board battles. Young Matty Beniers was able to do so and kept the play alive, finding Jared McCann wide open with space to unleash his wicked shot through traffic to beat Husso and tie the game up. With 1:11 to play in regulation, the Kraken and Red Wings both were looking to get that extra edge for a game winner late, but neither were able to do so. Seattle made a strong effort, including a hammered effort by Tye Kartye that Husso had to fight off, but this game was headed to overtime, an area that the Kraken had not won in quite yet this season.
Eberle comes up clutch again for Seattle
With both teams securing at least one point in the standings, the Kraken were looking to ensure that their hot start and overall better effort than we saw at the end of their homestand was not going to result in just that singular point. While Detroit has two of the top point scorers in the league so far at this early stage of the season and had only lost one of their six contests coming into this game, Seattle had played too well for the majority of the game to give this one away to the Red Wings. As they had in their eventual shutout loss to the St. Louis Blues earlier in the season, the Kraken maintained possession throughout this overtime period to ensure that they were going to dictate the pace of overtime, even if it meant having to circle back a few times. Things seemed headed for a Detroit win as Lucas Raymond lead a rush down towards Joey Daccord’s net, hitting the near post and giving Seattle enough life. Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann came the other way, as McCann found Eberle wide open in front to beat Husso and give the Kraken their second win of the season.
“This team, we haven’t been great in shootouts, so it’s nice to finish it off in overtime, I think that’s huge. We know that so, we try to play the puck possession game, take care of our opportunities.”
Building off two of their last three
I’ve already moaned and groaned to you about just how bad the loss ot the Rangers was back on Saturday, but even so, two of the last three games that the Kraken have played they have won, and they’ve shown characteristics that made last year's group a playoff team. Tonight wasn’t perfect by any means, given some of the sloppy play that gave just penalties and some of the others that shouldn’t have resulted in those penalties, but Seattle dominated Detroit statistically and deserved this victory. They could’ve done themselves a favor had they extended their lead in the third period or not given up those power play goals, but obviously you now know they had a harder way of doing things to get the two points. There are definite positives to build off here, and we’ll bank on them doing so as they continue on this tough road trip.
“I think just the little things, I thought for the most part we created a lot you know, the power play gets one at the end even though it had struggled, and then Schwartzy gets one the powerplay as well. I think for the most part I liked our five on five game, we created lots, we did a lot of good things.”
Quick notes
With tonight’s win, the Kraken improve to 4-0-1 all-time against the Red Wings. Detroit is one of three teams (Buffalo, Columbus) that Seattle has never lost in regulation to.
Kraken forward Matty Beniers was called for roughing in the first period, it’s the second penalty ever called on him.
This snaps a streak of 63 straight games without a penalty taken
Kraken forward Jordan Eberle leads Seattle in overtime goals with the team, including playoffs, with three
There are three players with two: Andre Burakovsky, Adam Larsson, and Yanni Gourde
With a goal and an assist tonight, Jordan Eberle now has seven points (three goals, four assists) in four games against the Red Wings as a member of the Kraken and has recorded multi-point efforts in six of the seven most recent games he has played against Detroit.
The Kraken also won the last game they played in Detroit in overtime, with Oliver Bjorkstrand scoring the game-winning goal.
What’s next?
Following the overtime victory over Detroit to begin their four-game road trip, the Seattle Kraken will now head over to Carolina for their second game this season against the Hurricanes. Seattle and Carolina will meet at PNC Arena on Thursday, October 26th with a puck drop of 4PM PST, being broadcast on Root Sports in the state of Washington while on ESPN+ nationally. The Hurricanes will be looking for a bounce back of their own, not only against a Kraken team that they lost to and allowed seven goals against, but because they are currently on a three-game losing streak. Seattle looks to take tonight’s strong effort, while cleaning up a few areas of poor play, into Carolina to try and start a winning streak.
