In Seattle, the Kraken scored twice in each period and throttled the visiting Chicago Blackhawks, 6-2 on Wednesday night.
The win ended a four-game slide for Seattle.
“That game’s huge for us,” Seattle’s Jordan Eberle said. “We’ve lost four in a row. You obviously see the standings, and we need to start with climbing. That’s a massive game.
“There are still little details that we need to fix, and Joey was there to make some huge saves today. They had more than enough [chances] to keep pace with us.”
Joey Daccord made 32 saves in the win.
The Kraken improved to 20-18-9.
The Kraken took a 2-0 lead in the opening stanza.
Jared McCann opened the scoring at 4:34 for a 1-0 lead.
“[McCann is] the best shooter on the team,” Eberle said. “For me, when I’m out there with him, I just try and find him. He tends to bury it. He’s good at finding ways to create space for himself, so he can get his shot off, and then obviously, he’s got one of the most elite shots I’ve seen.”
Jaden Schwartz pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 7:12.
Chicago got on the board at 17:20 to trim the deficit to 2-1 on a strike by Joey Anderson.
“It’s just a good [offensive]-zone shift,” Anderson said. “We were in the cycle, finally, and putting pucks at the net. I think it was [Jason Dickinson], just took it low to high, and Seth with a quick ready, shoot, and get a tip in front. We need more of that.”
The Blackhawks dropped to 14-32-2.
“It’s just not good enough defensively, I think,” Anderson said. “We had more chances tonight [than in a 2-0 loss at the Vancouver Canucks on Monday] to score, but you can’t give up the stuff we were giving up defensively tonight.”
Alex Wennberg was credited with a goal for the Kraken with 45 seconds gone in the middle frame. He was the last Seattle skater to touch the puck before the Blackhawks tried a breakout pass from the corner and the pass deflected off a defenseman and into the net for an own goal.
“We could have gotten another bounce there, that would have been great,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “They had one that went off their shin pad that was going two feet wide, and then one off our foot and off our goalie’s leg, so if we could get one of those one of these games, it could give us a little bit of a boost. But, sometimes we’ve got to be better as well.”
Seattle upped the lead to 4-1 when Brandon Tanev hit for a goal at 17:28 of the middle frame.
Chicago got one back when Nick Foligno scored off the power play with 39 seconds gone in the third period for a 4-2 count.
Seattle replied with two more goals to finish out the game, with both strikes coming from Tomas Tatar.
Tatar added a little more insurance at 4:28 off a breakaway for a 5-2 lead.
“Honestly, I just tried to pick my head up and tried to make a read as fast as I can,” Tatar said. “I saw a little opening, low blocker, and I tried to shoot it, you know, have a quick release, and I was fortunate enough to squeeze it in.”
Tatar picked up his double at 16:22 for the 6-2 final count on the scoreboard.
Arvid Soderblom made 23 saves in the loss.
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