In Toronto, the Seattle Kraken scored four times in the middle frame, and defeated the Maple Leafs, 5-1, on Thursday night.
“I think a lot of bounces went my way,” Seattle’s Vince Dunn said. “All my points were created off the forwards working hard and finding me to get the puck, so a lot of credit to them. They made it easy on me to play my game.”
Dunn had a goal in the second period outburst.
“There’s still another level (for us) to give,” Dunn said. “Shutting down those teams was great, but [there were] a couple shaky moments (against the Maple Leafs) where [Martin] Jones kept it a close game for us. When we are feeling our game, it translates and trickles down to the goalie’s playing style, I think he feels it and feels confident back there, makes the saves he needs. And for the most part we did a good job defensively out there.”
Martin Jones made 26 saves in the Kraken win.
“They kind of jumped on us at the start of the game, but I thought we did a pretty good job of weathering the storm a little bit,” Jones said. “They got a couple chances, but once we got our legs, started checking, started skating, we were able to control a lot of the play tonight.”
John Tavares was the lone striker for the Maple Leafs.
Seattle improved to 21-12-4.
Eeli Tolvanen and Tavres traded goals for a 1-1 tie in the second period, before the Kraken went on their run.
Toronto dropped to 23-9-7.
“I didn’t like that we weren’t able to capitalize and take control of the game on the scoreboard with how well we played in the first period, and then the game is up for grabs from there,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said.
Dunn reclaimed the lead for Seattle 14 seconds after the Tavares goal, and Jared McCann, and Matty Beniers scored for a 4-1 lead headed to the third period.
“Biggest goal of the game, biggest point of the game when they tied it up and the momentum can push the other way,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said of Dunn’s goal. “For our group to be able to come back and get that goal, that was the biggest turning point of the hockey game.”
Alex Wennberg scored for the Kraken in the third to make the 5-1 final.
“I’ve never been on a trip this long, so we’re just going to take it a piece at a time,” Hakstol said. “We got a good win at home before we left town, nice win in the division on the road against Edmonton and then to be able to come in here and play well again, that sets us up well.”
Matt Murray made 21 saves in the Leafs loss.
“We made some big mistakes,” Keefe said. “The breakaway is a big mistake. The game is already 2-1, you can’t make that mistake. That’s one that we’d like to have back. It’s a tough game to play when you are constantly pulling the puck out of your net. I thought that took the life away from us a little bit but I’m not going to overthink that part of the game. We didn’t do enough offensively to really gain traction and keep ourselves afloat.”
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