In Sunrise, the Seattle Kraken’s Jordan Eberle hit for a pair og goals in a 4-1 win on Saturday.
Chris Driedger got the win for the Seattle Kraken against his former team
The loss prevented the Panthers from setting a new NHL record for consecutive wins on home ice to open a season.
“We all know what was at stake tonight, but it’s behind us now and we’ve just got to look forward to the next game,” Florida’s Owen Tippett said.
Chris Driedger made 33 saves in the Seattle win against his former club.
“Definitely no animosity,” Driedger said. “It’s just good to see those guys. Honestly it was a bit of a challenge trying to just keep my head in the game. And it’s so familiar being in this barn. Just seeing those guys on the other side of the ice is a bit different. But at the end of the day, I just need to focus. Had some family at the game too, and it was a great night to just go out there, feel good and get a win.”
The Kraken improved to 7-13-1.
Patric Hornqvist was the lone goal scorer for Florida.
“They play hard every night and we knew that coming in,” Panthers head coach Andrew Brunette said. “We’ve done so much at home where we’re kind of rolling wave after wave of attack. Tonight we had a hard time generating much momentum. Credit to them, they played very tight.”
Seattle took a 2-1 lead on a goal from Ryan Donato in the first period after Hornqvist had tied it.
“There was a lot of buzz coming back into this building, felt really good to get that one,” Driedger said. “Pretty happy with that performance with our group. That’s about as good as I’ve seen our group play, so hats off to them.”
Florida dropped to 14-4-3.
Jamie Oleksiak hit for an empty-net goal late to ice the 4-1 decision.
“We won start to finish tonight and we really needed to do that, especially in this building against this team,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said. “They hadn’t lost in this building yet this year, so it was a good 60-minute performance for us.”
Spencer Knight made 23 saves in the Florida loss.
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