In Seattle, the Kraken faced the Calgary Flames for the first time this season. Mark Giordano hit for a goal and had three points on Thursday night against his former team, but it was not as Calgary skated off with a 6-4 win.
Johnny Gaudreau picked up a pair of goals and three points for the Flames.
“[Giordano] was a great captain and I loved playing with him here,” Gaudreau said. “I was happy for him, but at the end of the day, it’s another game against another team. But like I said, he’s a great captain.”
Jacob Markstrom made 18 saves in the Calgary win.
“I think there’s guys that really led the charge,” Calgary head coach Darryl Sutter said. “Johnny and [Milan Lucic) were really good for us tonight and they carried our team a lot. I think there were guys who showed rust. Some guys looked like they were playing an exhibition game but other guys carried them.”
The Flames improved to 16-7-6.
Calle Jarnkrok also picked up three points for the Kraken off a goal and two assists.
“Our guys fought extremely hard and we battled hard on a night we were playing back to back,” Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s no excuses in the room, there’s no consolation prizes that we’re looking for, so there’s no soft landing, but call it for what it is, our guys battled extremely hard and continued to fight back.”
The final minutes of the game were a frenzy of scoring with the Kraken tying the game, 4-4, with 2:39 left in the third period.
Jared McCann tied it for Seattle, but Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk hit for the eventual game-winner just 13 seconds later for a 5-4 lead.
“‘Chucky’ scored a big goal there to make 5-4,” Gaudreau said. “Guys were capitalizing and that’s a big way to respond there.”
Noah Hanifin iced the win with an empty-net goal with 20 seconds on the clock.
“It’s an important win for us,” Gaudreau said. “Obviously, a division game for us. It’s a big win for us that sets us up for January.”
The Kraken dropped to 10-18-4.
“It’s tough to swallow when we’re able to find the back of the net four times,” Hakstol said. “We are a team, the way we played that should be enough to come away with two points or to push it into overtime.”
Milan Lucic and Andrew Mangiapane (power play) also scored for Calgary.
“We found a way to win and that’s the important thing, getting back in the win column,” Tkachuk said. “It was ugly, especially late. That’s not the kind of team we are, giving up four. We should have been well-rested, and we had good days of practice. There was no excuse that we couldn’t come in here and beat a team that played last night.”
Yanni Gourde also scored for Seattle.
Chris Driedger made 34 saves in the loss.
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