In Las Vegas, Philipp Grubauer made 20 saves for the Seattle Kraken in a 4-2 win over the Golden Knights in an early Friday match.
“He looked confident and comfortable tonight,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “He made a couple of good saves.”
Seattle improved to 12-5-3.
Grubauer returned to the lineup after recovering from a lower body injury.
Ryan Donato and Andre Burakovsky , who scored twice in the game, gave the Kraken a 2-0 lad in the first period.
“It’s obviously a huge win. They’re ahead of us (in the Pacific Division). We want to chase them down,” Burakovsky said. “It was an important game. We lost last time against them (5-2 on Oct. 15), so we were hungry for the win today. It was good to get it done. Obviously, it’s always nice to help the team get on the board.”
As is the case n the NHL this season, the Kraken coughed up the lead on goals from Nicolas Roy and Phil Kessel for a 2-2 tie.
“He’s (Roy) been good for us all year. He certainly doesn’t lack confidence,” Cassidy said. “It was more about getting him into the flow of the game. It was a good goal for us.”
The Knights dropped to 16-5-3.
“They were quicker than us. They won a lot more races, one-on-one battles. They executed better than us. They were just the better team,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Let’s call it what it is, from start to finish, they outplayed us. We can look at different areas and why and what, but we weren’t ready to play, (and) that always falls on the coach. I got to get the guys ready to play. We didn’t come out of the gate ready to play.”
Burakovsky potted his second of the game in the middle frame at 5:20, for a 3-2 lead to Seattle.
“Lately, we get rewarded when we get pucks on net. That was a prime example,” Seattle’s Adam Larsson said. “It was close your eyes and shoot it. It landed pretty much on his stick. It was nice.”
Jordan Eberle added insurance in the ninth minute of the period for the 4-2 final.
“We needed two points,” Hakstol said. “We’re not looking for a measuring stick. We’re playing the game. We’re playing to win games. They’re an important two points on the road. We beat a good team here tonight. I’ll take the points and move on.”
Adin Hill made 24 saves in the Vegas loss.
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