In Vancouver, Yanni Gourde and Matty Beniers scored in the third period on Saturday night to give the Seattle Kraken a 4-2 lead over the Canucks.
Vancouver replied with less than a minute left on the game clock on a marker from Nils Hoglander for a 4-3 final score to the Kraken.
Jordan Eberle had a goal and three points in the win.
“More than not, we’ve found ways to lose games in third periods rather than find a win,” Eberle said. “So, it was nice to find a way to win here against a really good team that has obviously been pretty good at home. Hopefully this kickstarts us in the right direction.”
The Kraken improved to 7-8-4, off their second straight win.
Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves in the victory..
J.T. Miller Miller scored at 5:34 of the opening stanza to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead.
“Tied up going into the third, we’ve got to find a way to get that killer instinct when we don’t have our best,” Miller said. “We’ll learn from it. Sometimes you can lose games in a better fashion than others. We had an opportunity to salvage something, and we got outworked.”
The Canucks dropped to 12-5-1.
Seattle finally replied at 5:44 of the middle frame on a marker from Jamie Oleksiak to tie it, 1-1.
Eberle added his goal at 13:04 of the middle frame to give the Kraken a 2-1 advantage.
“I’m not a big guy, couldn’t get it up too high, so I think they got the right call,” said Eberle. “Sometimes it’s nice to get some bounces. For us, it was nice that we closed out a game in the third and took over one.”
Quinn Hughes scored at 15:44 to tie the the game 2-2 headed to the third.
“We just didn’t bring our A-game,” Hughes said. “We have a good team in here. We’re going to win lots of hockey games this year and we’re not going to go on 10-game winning streaks the whole year. Those guys wanted to win badly, too, so there’s going to be nights like this.”
Gourde and Beniers then scored in the third for the 4-2 lead.
“He'(Beniers) s been playing hard,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Obviously, the offensive side is starting to come. There’s still another notch or two there, but he’s looking more and more comfortable. He’s always worked hard, so now part of it is the confidence that you build as you have a little bit of success, and hopefully that’ll continue coming in his game.”
Thatcher Demko made 22 saves in the loss.
“Our changes were awful, long shifts, that’s .500 hockey,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “You can’t win that way. It wasn’t good enough. If we’re going to have the staples as our Bible, it wasn’t good. … There’s no excuses. They were a little bit hungrier on pucks and that’s really the game.”
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