An early 2-0 lead for the Seattle Kraken wasn’t enough to cool off a red-hot Edmonton Oilers team as they scored four unanswered goals to beat the Kraken 4-2 on Thursday night.
Warren Foegele scored a pair of goals and Leon Draisaitl delivered a four-point night in handing the Kraken a third straight loss.
Seattle had come off a nine-game winning streak that helped get the Kraken firmly back into the playoff conversation. But injuries and illnesses have left the team a bit short-handed in the three games since and they’ve been unable to earn a point during the final three games of a season-long six-game road trip.
“The first 10 minutes of the second period is what cost us,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be and gave up too much in that time span. Pushed back after that but weren’t able to capitalize on what was a good start.”
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Meanwhile, the win was the 12th straight victory for Edmonton as they have raced past the Kraken in the standings.
Draisaitl and Zach Hyman each scored on the power play for Edmonton and Stuart Skinner made 25 saves on 27 shots. Eeli Tolvanen and Jared McCann delivered the goals for Seattle.
The Kraken got off to a terrific start in building the early lead and Joey Daccord made 12 saves in the opening period to put the team in a great position to threaten Edmonton’s winning streak.
Connor McDavid tried a “spin-o-rama” move in front of Seattle’s net and lost control of the puck between three Kraken defenders. Oliver Bjorkstrand then delivered a perfect pass to Tolvanen to spark a breakaway chance with Tolvanen beating goaltender Stuart Skinner for a 1-0 Kraken lead.
Shortly after killing off an Adam Larsson penalty, the Kraken got another chance in transition. Yanni Gourde’s neutral zone pass led to a 2-on-1 chance. Jordan Eberle found McCann in cleanly and he snapped a shot by Skinner for a 2-0 lead.
The Kraken nearly made it a 3-0 game with another breakaway opportunity. Brandon Tanev got in behind the Edmonton defense but lost control of the puck as he tried to deke to his backhand as he was unable to convert.
“Great start, obviously,” McCann said. “We kind of got them back on their heels a little bit there, but we’ve got to finish the game. It’s great to start like that, but we’ve got to learn to finish it.”
But the first eight minutes of the second period were firmly dominated by Edmonton.
A Leon Draisaitl shot rebounded directly to Warren Foegele on the back side of the net and he beat Joey Daccord just 37 seconds into period to get the Oilers on the board.
A Tomáš Tatar hooking penalty against McDavid gave the Oilers’ deadly power play unit another chance to go on the attack and they pounced instantly. Just 13 seconds into the power play, Draisaitl managed to back a shot from behind the goal line to the side of the net off Daccord for the tying goal.
“We gave them too much,” McCann said. “We’ve just got to realize that sometimes you’ve just got to play (defense), especially against a team like that. So it’s a learning experience for us.”
The Oilers onslaught continued with Foegele getting his second of the night. Will Borgen fell down after clicking skates with Foegele in the neutral zone to spring Foegele for a breakaway into the Seattle zone that beat Daccord for a 3-2 Edmonton lead.
“We had a lot of turnovers in that eight minutes that they scored those goals,” Tolvanen said. “I feel like we watched the first eight minutes of the second period and they scored big goals. We knew if we gave them time, they were going to score goals and that happened today.”
Seattle appeared to have tied the game late in the second period with some help from Daccord. With Edmonton caught in a line change, Daccord fired the puck up from Seattle’s zone to Alex Wennberg as the Oilers’ blue line. Wennberg skated in and snapped a shot by Skinner to seemingly tie the game at 3-3.
However, the Oilers challenged the play and got the goal overturned on a missed offsides penalty. Kailer Yamamoto had crossed the blue line just before Wennberg entered the zone as Yamamoto was leaving the ice onto the Seattle bench.
Between the missed breakaway look for Tanev and the negated goal from Wennberg, Seattle had their chances.
Gourde took a five-minute major for a charging penalty against Mattias Ekholm with just under four minutes left to play and Edmonton added an insurance goal. Hyman found space at the back post and McDavid found him for a tap-in goal and the 4-2 lead.
Daccord finished with 32 saves on 36 shots faced for the Kraken.
