In Seattle, the visiting New York Islanders scored twice in the first and second periods on Tuesday night and cruised to a 5-2 win over the Kraken.
Zach Parise hit for a double for New York.
Zdeno Chara iced for the Islanders and tied Chris Chelios for most game in the NHL by a defenseman.
“Most importantly, a much-needed win for us,” Parise said. “And it’s a really special night for [Chara]. It’s really neat for us to be a part of tonight and the next game as well for him to break that record. We’re all really happy for him and excited to be a part of what he’s accomplishing right now.”
New York moved to 19-20-7.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to find a way to score some goals and we did that,” New York head coach Barry Trotz said. “You’ve got to find a way to have a good start, we did that. You’ve got to find a way to stay disciplined and for the most part, we did that. We know that when everything sort of breaks down you need commitment, and we had that. We got big saves and timely saves.”
Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves in the Isles win.
“He was really huge when it was 4-2,” Trotz said. “He made a couple of huge saves. It was probably a difficult game for him because he didn’t have a lot of a lot of work for the first 30 minutes, and then the last 20 or so we gave him a lot of work. So, goaltending is all about key saves at key times, so we got that tonight.”
After the Islanders took a 4-0 lead in the middle frame, the Kraken got goals from Yanni Gourde and Riley Sheahan to pull within 4-2.
“We dug ourselves a pretty deep hole in the first half of the hockey game,” Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had a little bit of energy in the first period, but we didn’t generate anything out of it. We couldn’t generate any momentum off that and obviously dug a hole in the first half of the game.”
Brock Nelson and Parise scored in the opening period for the 2-0 lead to New York.
Seattle dropped to 16-33-4.
Kyle Palmieri and Casey Cizikas hit for goals in the middle frame to put the Isles up, 4-0.
“It’s nice that they’re going in right now,” Palmieri said. “You just try and work and generate scoring chances. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t, but it’s good to get a win tonight and I think we’re going to try and build something on this road trip and get the ball rolling in the right direction.”
Gourde scored before the end of the second to get the Kraken on the board.
“You feel the strain of where you’re at in your home building, down by three or four, and that just gave us a jolt of energy, Hakstol said. “That gave us a flip of a switch of energy. I give them credit. They did a good job with the puck, they defended well and didn’t give us a lot of opportunities.”
Parise hit an empty-net for the 5-2 final.
Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves in the loss.
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