PHILADELPHIA — Few could forgive Jaden Schwartz if, much like his struggling Kraken team, he wanted to put the recent past behind him and focus on starting fresh.
Schwartz helped accomplish that on an individual and team level in a 4-3 victory over the Flyers early Sunday in a city mostly preoccupied by the night’s upcoming Super Bowl between the hometown Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. His go-ahead goal right before the second period ended and another just as the final frame got started were enough to halt the Kraken’s three-game losing streak and make the Pacific Division standings a tad more palatable.
Patrick Brown scored a short-handed goal late on a shot partially screened by defender Vince Dunn to get the Flyers back within one. Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer made a huge stop late off James van Riemsdyk and several more from close in to hang on for the win.
The goals were the first by Schwartz in exactly a month, dating back to a Jan. 12 win in Boston that’s served as an unofficial season highlight of sorts by his team. Schwartz would miss a slew of games after that for undisclosed reasons while the Kraken, after winning once more to extend a franchise high streak of victories to eight, had gone 3-6-1 in 10 contests since then.
As a result, they’d entered Sunday in fourth place in the division after Edmonton and Los Angeles both passed them on Saturday night. They’d also used up most of the plethora of games in-hand they’d held on both those teams and on the division-leading Vegas Golden Knights.
Not only that, but the Calgary Flames were creeping up as well — closing within three points of the Kraken courtesy of a victory Saturday night.
But after the victory here, the Kraken moved back into a second-place tie and gained another game in-hand on Edmonton after the Oilers lost big to Montreal.
Things didn’t start off too positively for the Kraken in this one, with Dunn taking an early penalty and Owen Tippett scoring on the power play before the game was barely two minutes old.
But the Kraken focused on their game-plan, dominated even-strength play from there and saw Jordan Eberle and Eeli Tolvanen score to put the Kraken ahead before the first period ended. Then, after van Riemsdyk tied it up early in the second by swatting a puck out of midair and by Grubauer on his backhand, Schwartz scored with just over a minute to go in the second to put the Kraken ahead to stay.
Schwartz took an Eberle pass in the high slot, briefly corralled the bouncing puck, then fired a quick snapper that beat goalie Felix Sandstrom.
As a result of their pre-All Star Break stumbles and losing the first three games of a trip that concludes against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, the Kraken for the first time in more than a month entered the day holding one of the Western Conference’s two wild-card spots rather than an automatic entry as a top-three divisional team. Mind you, even with the Kraken’s tumble to seventh overall in the conference, their odds of making the playoffs hadn’t dropped much since their first post-All Star defeat — from 95% to 91% — according to the Money Puck analytics website.
And so, some pregame advice from coach Dave Hakstol to players about leaving the past behind and starting fresh seemed to have more than wishful thinking behind it. Hakstol had said after his team’s loss to the New York Rangers on Friday that he wanted the Kraken to use Saturday’s off-day to get away from the rink and clear their heads before retaking the ice.
The Flyers have struggled at times this season but are far from a pushover and had entered the day 11-5-3 over their past 19 games, ranking third in NHL wins over that span.
Taking two penalties before the game was even four minutes old set the Kraken back initially. Tippett wound up cashing in on the first power play after just 2:11 had elapsed, standing unguarded to Grubauer’s right and slotting the puck home when it came to him off a goal mouth scramble.
But the Kraken got a needed equalizer with just over seven minutes remaining in the frame when Jared McCann led a 2-on-1 rush and chipped a perfect pass over to Eberle — who waited for Sandstrom to commit before wristing the puck past him.
Then, with just more than a minute to play in the period, Oliver Bjorkstrand caused a turnover in Philadelphia’s end. Tolvanen picked up the puck, skated to the left circle and snapped it by Sandstrom for a Kraken lead.