In Seattle, Chris Driedger made 29 saves on Sunday night to help the Kraken defeat the Dallas Stars, 4-1.
“We go into the third with the lead and they came out pretty hot, and I just tried to do my thing and give us a chance,” Driedger said. “Feels good to win. For me, I think just a couple of little tweaks and getting some confidence and just kind of doing my thing in there. So it’s been a lot of fun and what an effort by the guys tonight. Fun to watch.”
Jared McCann scored shorthanded in the first period to give the Kraken a 1-0 lead.
John Klingberg was the lone striker for Dallas.
The loss dropped the Stars one point back of the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
“This one stings a little bit because you come in 3-0 (on four-game road trip) you fully expect to go come with eight points,” the Stars’ Joe Pavelski said. “Throughout a season you’re thinking that’s a pretty good trip, but with the situation we’re in, you can be a little greedy and selfish and you wanted that fourth one. So we’d like to have that last one.”
Dallas dropped to 39-26-3.
Seattle scored three times in the third period, Ryan Donato started the outburst with a goal to make the score 2-0.
“The one big thing that we wanted to make sure we didn’t do in the third is feed their transition,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We talked about defending well and then it’s automatically you’re gonna look for that quick transition. Our guys did a good job of pushing on possession and finding those opportunities. They don’t just happen, you got to read possession, you got to go and then somebody’s got to make the play to get it there, and we did that.”
After Klingberg made it 2-2, Yanni Gourde scored for Seattle for a 3-1 lead.
“I’ve been impressed by the work ethic of our team,” Hakstol said. “We’ve been able to play with a lot of the changes, and some of the individuals that have stepped forward and are proving themselves and doing good things night after night. So we want to continue that, it’s a busy month. We got a long month in front of us, but let’s try to have some fun. Let’s play our [tails] off and win games and have some fun together.”
Karson Kuhlman added an empty-net goal for the 4-1 final.
Jake Oettinger made 25 saves in the Dallas loss.
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