DENVER — Kraken winger Jaden Schwartz had no idea his late game flip pass to a streaking Karson Kuhlman was going to lead to arguably the franchise’s biggest road win in its brief history.
Schwartz was just making a proper play, trying to dump the puck up the ice to allow his tiring linemates to make a change for fresh bodies — one of which happened to be Kuhlman just jumping on. But making the correct, solid play is something the Kraken did plenty of in this 3-2 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche on the kind of Friday night that can alter a season’s direction.
And to hear Schwartz tell it, when you keep doing the little things right, sometimes much bigger things can happen.
“It was just an all-around, good team effort,” said Schwartz, who’d opened the scoring on the power play early in the second period for the first of two Kraken goals in a 22-second-span that allowed them to play with a lead much of the contest. “I thought we checked them hard. Took away their time and space, had some pretty good offensive zone time.
“We were just harder on pucks. We executed a little bit better, we looked quicker and looked a little bit cleaner coming out of our end and into the neutral zone. I think we did a good job of using our feet today and making it hard on them to make plays.”
The feet usage was evident on Kuhlman’s hustling goal, as was his back and arm strength to muscle the puck past goalie Pavel Francouz with hulking defender Kurtis MacDermid draped all over him. MacDermid has seven inches and about 50 pounds on Kuhlman, yet the checking line forward somehow got enough on his shot.
“I think it starts with a good wall play there,” Kuhlaman said of the flip pass. “Schwartz makes a good play, puts the puck into space and lets me skate into it. And then yeah, he (MacDermid) was draped on me there. I usually like to get that puck to the far post, but I saw a little opening and was able to put it into the net.”
And from there, the Kraken locked it down in a way they hadn’t quite managed earlier on. Despite the early 2-0 lead, goalie Philipp Grubauer had to make several terrific early stops against his former team to keep his newer one ahead.
Colorado got one back from van Rodrigues about five minutes after Jared McCann’s goal had put the Kraken up by a pair. Then, Grubauer stopped Alex Newhook’s wrist shot from 16 feet out when the Avalanche forward had gotten in alone behind Kraken defenders in an attempt to tie it.
Colorado would tie things in the third period when an Andre Burakovsky giveaway on the power play led to an odd-man rush the other way and Bowen Byram taking a drop pass and firing it home to make it 2-2. Grubauer was hurt on the play, tried to stay in but left a few minutes later and backup goalie Martin Jones had to play the final half of the period.
But the Kraken didn’t let up. Kuhlman finally rewarded them with his goal, improving the team’s record to 2-2-2 and its overall mindset by leaps and bounds.
“It’s important to find your way through when you’re in a tie hockey game and you give up that tying goal,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s important to be able to find your way through and the result is important. It matters. Obviously, it matters a lot. To be able to come in here and walk out of the building with two points, those are an important two points for us.”
Last January, in the Kraken’s first ever visit to Ball Arena, they led 3-1 late in the second period, gave one goal back before intermission, then allowed the tying and winning strikes in the final frame of a 4-3 loss. Kraken goalie Grubauer also played very well in that game.
The different result wasn’t lost on the team this time around. They’d fought hard — sometimes literally — all game long, from Jamie Oleksiak taking on reigning NHL heavyweight champ MacDermid in a spirited first period tilt that energized the Kraken bench, to Kuhlman flexing some muscle of his own late to avoid collapsing under the bigger man’s weight on his goal-scoring effort.
Hakstol said Oleksiak’s fight was one of “the key points in the hockey game” along with some crucial shot blocks and penalty kills. Among other things, it showed the Kraken weren’t backing down when the Avalanche tried to slow them early by laying on the body.
“Our start tonight, right off the bat we dominated,” McCann said. “That’s a good team over there, good defense. But we stayed above them and made it hard for them to make plays.”
McCann’s second period goal came off some hustle when defenseman Carson Soucy kept a poor clearing attempt by Francouz inside Colorado’s end and launched a puck from the blue line towards the net. With Francouz off-balance, McCann was able to gather in the loose puck and fire it home.
The Kraken played very well in two California games to open the season, but came away with only three points instead of four. They also were limited to one point against St. Louis in another well-played game Wednesday night, making the two points here a welcome respite for a team in need.
“It’s something to build off of,” McCann said. “I feel like we played awesome in those California games and kind of fell short. So, to get this one, you can just build from there.”