In Seattle, the Kraken broke out f a funk on Thursday night, taking a 5-0 lead over the Philadelphia Flyers through two periods of play.
Yanni Gourde hit for a double, and the Kraken picked up a needed win, 6-2.
“Thanks for the reminder,” Gourde said. “I think it’s good. It’s good to get some confidence. It’s good to shoot the puck and get the puck going, and it’s always good to score a few goals going forward.
“But at the same time, don’t change the way you play. Just play hard and play your game and good things happen.”
Philipp Grubauer made 17 saves in the Seattle win.
“I thought we played faster than the last few games on the road,” Gourde said. “I thought we were checking a little bit better, even in the neutral zone. They weren’t coming through the middle of the ice and in the neutral zone. I think that’s the big key.”
The Kraken improved to 31-18-6.
The Flyers’ Travis Konecny scored a pair of goals in the third period, when the game was already decided.
“It was probably our worst game of the year, I’d say,” Philadelphia forward James van Riemsdyk said. “[We] didn’t do a lot of good things at all and really left our goalies out to dry a few times. [It’s] definitely disappointing, so let’s have a good response our next game (at the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday).”
Philadelphia dropped to 22-24-10.
“We just weren’t very sharp,” van Riemsdyk said. “I don’t know what we want to blame it on, if it’s the travel or we just weren’t ready or whatever. … Again, that’s twice in a row obviously against a good team, and we didn’t respond nearly well enough.”
The Kraken took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a shorthanded goal from Jared McCann , and Gourde’s first of the game.
In the first period, the Flyers were held to one shot on goal.
“It’s pretty self-explanatory what you saw out there, so you really don’t need my comments,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. ” … I am not going to talk about my hockey team after a performance like this. It doesn’t do me any good, it doesn’t do the team any good. Those are the people I’m most concerned about.”
Seattle’s Justin Schultz scored off the power play for a 3-0 lead in the middle frame.
“The biggest goal, in my mind, was Schultz on the power-play goal,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “You knew there was going to be a response after the first period. They had a response, and that power-play goal settled things down for us.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand extended the lead to 4-0 on a breakaway off a backhanded pass.
Gourde then connected on a power play goal off a feed from the left side to his position between the circles for a 5-0 advantage headed to the third.
Matty Beniers scored for the Kraken between the two Konecny goals in the third period.
”We’ve got to show up with everybody and go out and play well as a group to have a chance to win,” Hakstol said. ”We were ready to play tonight.”
Carter Hart yielded four of the Kraken goals, he made 15 saves before getting the hook in the second period.
Samuel Ersson made nine saves in a mop up role.
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