Seattle, WA – Stanley Cup Playoff hockey returned to the Emerald City for game three of this second-round matchup between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken. Outside of the one game during the regular season where Dallas beat Seattle by three goals, all the matchups (postseason +regular season) totaled together coming into this game tallied to five goals. The Kraken came out tonight and dominated the Stars, winning by a differential of five to match the total from those postseason and regular season games combined and rocking Climate Pledge Arena all Sunday-night long. With Philipp Grubauer remaining rock solid between the Seattle pipes, the Kraken were able to release their offensive pressure and relentless forecheck after a few days off to take the series lead at two-to-one and display the dominance their depth can generate.
After a somewhat depleted effort proved to play a role in their loss in game two of the series back on Thursday, May 4th, Seattle as a team had two days off to take to themselves and recharge ahead of a game three battle with a deep Dallas team. It paid major dividends for the Kraken, as their relentless forecheck and offensive aggression showed was apparent in combination with the depth of their team. Seattle was able to dominate the offensive statistics throughout the first frame and looked ready to play from the jump, keeping the Stars on their heels and bringing the fight to Dallas. The Kraken got on the door step of a goal numerous times, often in frantic instances, but failed to get the ice to lean in their favor to go on the board first. The pace of the game was dictated by Seattle and they came out of the gate heavy on the forecheck, just the type of recipe that helped them knock off the Avalanche in round one.
With a blank scoreboard after 20 minutes that saw the Kraken play the game that they wanted to, Seattle was finally able to kick the door down and find results. The scoring began in a somewhat peculiar way, as Kraken rookie forward Tye Kartye attempted to whip a puck in on Oettinger. The puck either took a weird angle or was redirected off the tip of a Stars skater that was trying to block Kartye, sending it directly at the face of Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen, sending him to the ice immediately. The puck fell right in front of the crease after colliding with Heiskanen, and Jordan Eberle was in the right spot at the right time, zooming into the play before making a move around Oettinger to score. A bang-bang play, Heiskanen taken off the ice and out of the game following the sequence, but it was the first domino to fall for this Kraken win.
“We might not have the biggest names like a lot of teams but you know, we play like a real team. That’s what we’ve been doing it all year,” Matty Beniers, Seattle Kraken rookie forward, on the team’s depth scoring.
Less than two minutes later, Seattle caught Dallas unprepared off a Kraken faceoff win (those are rare). Seattle’s Jaden Schwartz, demanding attention from two Stars skaters, was able to hold the puck just the split second long enough to get linemate Alex Wennberg wide open to snipe a puck near top corner and double the Kraken lead. Everything started to go Seattle’s way, as defenseman Carson Soucy jumped into the play and created some space for himself before taking advantage of Oettinger leaving his five-hole unchecked. In a span of minutes, the Kraken had jumped on the Stars and the floodgates had been opened.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the final score is. It’s a second win of the series for us. Flip the page, move on to Game 4, and make sure that energy that we had tonight is back with us two nights from now,” Dave Hakstol, Seattle Kraken head coach, on the win.
The Kraken will host the fourth game of this series and second consecutive contest on Tuesday, May 9th against these Stars. Coming off a game that saw Seattle’s players get time off, the Kraken will take a day between games before they get an opportunity to take an imposing 3-1 lead over the Stars before the series swaps back to Dallas for game five. The puck drop time for that game four takes place at 6:30PM PST and will be broadcast on ESPN, and the Kraken may be getting a critical piece of their lineup back. Seattle forward Jared McCann was on the ice for morning skate ahead of game three in a normal jersey, and while he wasn’t available tonight, he’s progressing well in his recovery.
