Kraken end skid, down Panthers, 5-2

In Sunrise, with the scored tied, 1-1, in the second period, the Seattle Kraken reeled off four straight goals, three in the third, to defeat the Panthers, 5-2, on Sunday.

Martin Jones made 23 saves in the Seattle win.

“Especially early, [Jones] made some key, key saves,” Seattle forward Jordan Eberle said. “He deserves all the credit. He’s been great this year, and I think the biggest thing is he just becomes a presence back there, and anytime you make mistakes, he will make saves.”

The Kraken ended a three-game skid, and improved to 16-8-3.

“I think we were better at checking out of the middle of the ice first,” Seattle’s Yanni Gourde said. “They didn’t have many odd-man rushes, I think that’s the key thing. I go back to the last few games, they had way too many chances in the middle of the ice so we covered that.”

Eric Staal scored for the Panthers, it was his first with Florida.

“I thought they were quickest and on us and forced us to turn pucks over a little bit too much,” Staal said. “Really attacked us with their quickness and their speed, and we just didn’t seem to have enough guys with the gas needed to play. We needed to try and grind one out down 2-1 at home to try and find a way to make it happen.”

Florida dropped to 13-12-4,

Staal’s goal tied the game, 1-1, after Matty Beniers staked the Kraken to an early 1-0.

Midway through the second period, Andre Burakovsky put the Kraken up, 2-1, headed to the third.

“It happened fast,” Gourde said. “We had a great [offensive]-zone shift. I knew they were tired, I made the move on the wall and saw him come in through the middle of the ice, and a [heck] of a shot by him.”

In the third, Jordan Eberle and Daniel Sprong hit for markers for a 4-1 advantage to Seattle.

“This morning, we talked about it, just getting back to who we are,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We were a little better 5-on-5, a little bit better in terms of all three zones in terms of how we checked and skated. We did that tonight, that was a big part of our game tonight.”\

Gourde hit an empty net for a 5-1 lead with less than three minutes to go in the game.

Florida’s Chris Tierney scored with 77 seconds left on the clock for the 5-2 final.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves in the loss.

“Overall, it’s a tough loss,” Bobrovsky said. “Actually, two losses when I thought our guys competed, you know, competed hard and fight hard so unfortunately, we lost all of a sudden.”