In Seattle, the Kraken got healthy on the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, in a 4-1 win.
The victory moved the Kraken five points clear of the Winnipeg Jets for the first wild card in the Western Conference.
“This group inside of this room has continued to find its way, to push for some things that we’ve wanted to push for,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We continue to be in that position, and there’s still work to do in order to get to that first goal that we have on the list.”
Martin Jones made 18 saves in the Seattle win.
The Kraken imp[roved to 41-25-8.
Seattle grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period on an early strike by Jaden Schwartz .
“[Borgen] read the play nice and passed it through [the defender’s] stick, hard pass right on the tape,” Schwartz said. “I had a lot of speed, so I was hoping he saw me, and he did a really good job of selling it and finding me.”
Matty Beniers scored midway through the first to push the lead to 2-0 for Seattle.
“That (Kraken’s fourth line pressuring the Ducks) created the whole goal,” Beniers said. “It starts there. [The Ducks] are gassed, we get out there and we’re able to make a play, so all the credit to those guys.”
The Ducks dropped to 23-42-10 off their sixth straight loss.
“I’ve been so proud of this group during an adverse year,” Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. “We’ve bent a few times, but never broken. They continue to have great attitudes. We just have some amazing young men here.”
Brock McGinn trimmed the Seattle lead to 2-1 in the middle frame.
“All of a sudden, it was a 2-1 game,” Hakstol said. “”We just had to come in and reset, and settle down and go back, and play a good third period.”
Daniel Sprong scored off the power play at 15:41 to give the Kraken a 3-1 lead, and Alex Wennberg scored an empty-net goal for the 4-1 final.
“We settled down in the third,” Hakstol said. “We needed a couple real good saves from Martin Jones to do that. Penalty kill did their job, power play did its job in extending the lead in the third period, and that’s it. It closes out a good two points for us, and that’s a real positive night.”
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Lukas Dostal made 35 saves in the Ducks loss.
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