In Seattle, Auston Matthews s staked the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs to a 1-0 lead over the Kraken with 7:06 gone in the opening stanza on Sunday night.
“Some of the plays he makes, he’s going through traffic and the puck just sticks to his stick,” the Maple Leafs’ Max Domi said. “Or he kicks it up or does something outrageous. It’s crazy to think that we’re just getting used to seeing it, but every shift he’s doing something, and he’s always a threat.”
Ilya Samsonov made 16 saves in the win.
“It’s just really good anticipation by [Mitchell Marner], I think,” Matthews said of his goal. “I think when we’re on the same page like that, you can just kind of see the play happening, and I think we both know where each other are at on the ice. And so he just made an unbelievable play to me. I had a little bit of time to hang onto it and make a play to the backhand.”
The Maple Leafs improved to 23-14-8.
“[Samsonov has] been grinding away,” Toronto’s Nicholas Robertson said. “I think he’s just been on the opposite side of luck. … He’s a great goaltender, too, so for him to get rewarded like that, and [after] working and going through this rough patch, it’s good to see, and I hope he can build on it.”
Robertson extended the Maple Leafs’ lead to 2-0 at 2:51 of the middle frame.
“[Robertson is] going to give you everything he has, and at a time when you haven’t used him on the trip, he’s going to have more in the tank than anyone else,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I loved every second that he played.”
Seattle dropped to 19-18-9.
“If you really break it down, they took advantage of one more scoring opportunity than we did,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “They’re going to be a challenge to play against because of the octane that they have and the way that they can get up ice.”
Jordan Eberle was the lone striker for the Kraken, his goal at 14:03 of the second period trimmed the deficit to 2-1.
“We have to find a way to score,” Eberle said. “Especially when the last few games we’re fighting it a bit at 5-on-5, the power play has to be a big part of that if you want to turn this around.”
The Maple Leafs sealed the 3-1 win when Jake McCabe hit an empty net with 21 seconds left on the regulation clock.
“I thought we had the puck a lot tonight,” Keefe said. “I thought with the exception of a few times in the second period, I thought we managed it really well. But because we had the puck a lot, I think that really helped us, and we defended and checked hard when we needed to.”
Joey Daccord made 23 saves in the loss.
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