Kraken plug Oilers, 4-3

In Seattle, four different skaters hit for goals on Friday night, for the Kraken in a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

It was Seattle’s third straight home win.

Yanni Gourde, Adam Larsson, Colin Blackwell, and Alex Wennberg were the Seattle strikers.

“I think we did a better job tonight in the neutral zone than we did against [the] Detroit [Red Wings, a 4-3 shootout loss Wednesday],” Gourde said. “They are a fast team, they’re very skilled, but you got to respect that at the same time. You have to play fast, you have to play like you aren’t standing still against that team because they’re going to pick you apart.”

The Kraken improved 9-13-2.

“It’s good to get the first one on the first shift,” Gourde said. “Nice play by Ryan to get it off the stick, but I think we played a much better game overall. We managed the puck much better.”

Philipp Grubauer made 29 saves the Seattle win.

“They’ve established an identity of a hard-working team,” Edmonton’s Tyson Barrie said. “They’re not going to take many chances are going to try and play a tight game. That’s what they did. And they capitalized on the chances.”

The Oilers dropped to 16-6-0.

Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid were the Edmonton goal scorers.

“We were competitive all night,” Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol said. “There were some momentum changes and momentum pushes through that game. When we manage the puck, which was most of the night, we put ourselves in pretty good spots.

“They had a [heck] of a push in the third period, that’s going to happen. When you have those two guys (Draisaitl and McDavid) on the ice as often as they were, you’re going to have a push from them, but our guys handled it well and we’re able to close out the game.”

Stuart Skinner made 30 saves in the Oilers loss.

“It’s frustrating,” Barrie said. “I don’t think we want to put ourselves in a position where we have to come back, this was just a bit of a disappointing one. I think we didn’t play our best tonight and you’d like to just be better in a lot of areas.”