Seattle, WA – As the clock hit triple zeroes to end regulation, the way things had played out felt disappointingly similar to the last game the Seattle Kraken had played, as again they fell in a tightly contested battle with a tough opponent. The Kraken lost 4-3 in overtime to the Dallas Stars, a top team in the Western Conference, in the first of two games that the teams will play in a span of three days. The Kraken battled hard, just as they had against Ottawa, but still cannot put the finishing touches on these intense battles. Seattle has proven that they can hang with the best teams in the league, including the Boston Bruins, but they can’t shut the door on them just yet.
“It was a really competitive game out there, I thought we did okay for the most part. A really disappointing result again when we’re up close in the end, so we’ll learn from it, look at it, we’ll find a way to break them down, we have them again here very soon. Just forget it, it’s an important point that we got, and we’ll move on,” Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn reflected.
If you were to lay out the games Seattle played at home against Boston, Ottawa, and Dallas, you’d think you’re looking at the same contest in different font with minor tweaks here and there. All three of those hotly contested battles have been against quality opponents and came down to the Kraken failing to find a way to put the final nail in their opponents’ coffin. Seattle, obviously still only in their second year as a franchise, have experienced numerous growing pains through the season but have been able to learn from them enough to adjust and move forward. Ironically enough, one of those pains that they had “grown” out of came back to bite the Kraken.
Seattle begrudgingly took the game to overtime; having blown the late lead they had taken on an Oliver Bjorkstrand power play goal, when they allowed a score with 1:10 to play in period three. After going winless in their first three overtime games to start the season, the Kraken heavily practiced their three-on-three play to prepare themselves for that situation, and they proceeded to win the next seven games decided in the overtime period. That streak came to a halt tonight, as even though Seattle had far higher possession of the puck in overtime, the Kraken couldn’t get a good look on Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger. Dallas took the puck the other way and cycled it enough to find a wide-open Miro Heiskanen, and just like that Dallas had secured victory from the jaws of defeat in Seattle.
“They made a play to win it, we had a couple of looks, but we didn’t get inside on them. We had a couple opportunities where we had tired legs on the ice on their side. Wenny had the one look from outside, Ebs had one that maybe could have taken inside a little harder, but he had a look from the outside and he’s pretty confident from there. But they made play,” Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol said about the overtime period.
Seattle will have a team day off to get away from the rink before these two teams face off in the rematch on Monday, March 13th inside of Climate Pledge Arena with a puck drop of 7PM PST. Knowing the issues that resulted in their defeat, the Kraken seemed eager and ready to get back to work immediately following the loss, so this game already seems like it’s going to have that “big fight feel.” On that night, Seattle will be celebrating it’s “Pride night,” their second to last Hockey is for Everyone night of the season.
