Among the bigger tests this season for the Kraken was passed despite some nervous moments Thursday night when they took down the league’s other big turnaround squad.
Vegas bookmakers had picked the Kraken and New Jersey Devils to be the NHL’s most improved teams this season, and they’ve matched and even exceeded those lofty expectations. But it would be the Kraken prevailing 4-3 in overtime in this contest, with Andre Burakovsky scoring on a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle 1:10 into the extra frame.
Burakovsky picked up a loose puck, circled inside the Devils’s zone, moved in and delivered his team’s fifth consecutive overtime win after three initial losses this season.
Nico Hischier had tied the game with 1:14 to go in regulation, pumping a rebound upstairs behind goalie Martin Jones off a scramble in his crease.
The Kraken had jumped out to a 2-0 lead courtesy of a pair of Ryan Donato goals. Then, after the Devils tied it in the third, Brandon Tanev would put the Kraken back in front just 1:46 later, converting a Donato pass into a vacant left side of the net.
Kraken goalie Jones came up big when needed at times, stopping Jesper Boqvist on a partial breakaway early on. But the Devils finally beat Jones midway through the second on a screened Damon Severson wrister from the high slot that the goalie never saw until it was already by him.
Erik Haula then tied it with a short-handed marker just more than six minutes into the final frame, racing in alone after the puck got by defender Vince Dunn along the sideboards. That equalizer came shortly after Tanev had missed converting a Morgan Geekie feed into a vacant left side of the net.
But Tanev didn’t miss again when, just 1:46 after Haula’s equalizer, Donato jumped on a loose puck and flung it across the ice. This time, Tanev popped the puck into the open side.
This was a big win for the Kraken and not merely because they took down a streaking Devils team that had captured five in a row and seven straight on the road in compiling an away record of 18-2-1. The Kraken have also notably been a better team on the road than at home, so giving the announced 17,151 at Climate Pledge Arena a win to celebrate should help their quest to capture some local attention now that the Seahawks are done playing.
Also, a loss to the Devils would have been a third straight for the Kraken and negated a bit of that eight-game win streak snapped here Monday afternoon by Tampa Bay. And with the defending champion Colorado Avalanche playing better and due in town Saturday night, followed by a Vancouver Canucks squad the Kraken have never beaten, then the Calgary Flames, the prospect of an extended losing streak had been lingering.
Instead, the Kraken served notice from the opening shift they meant business, displaying plenty of energy carried throughout the first period. Donato got them on the board at the 12:27 mark with a blistering wrist shot from the right circle that appeared to catch Devils goalie Mackenzie Blackwood by surprise.
Blackwood would be the only thing keeping the Devils in the game as the period ticked by and the Kraken at one point had a 14-6 lead in shots and were dominating the high danger chances. The Kraken kept up the pace in the middle frame and it paid off when Donato and Jared McCann raced down the ice on a 2-on-1 break.
Puck carrier Donato waited until he reached the right circle again and this time unleashed a fierce snap shot that again beat Blackwood short side to make it 2-0 just under five minutes in. Cale Fleury drew a secondary assist on the play for his first Kraken point.
The Kraken had several chances to extend the lead right after, one of them coming when Jordan Eberle rang a rebound off the post.
Not long after, Severson’s goal got the Devils back in it.
Heading into the season, both Devils coach Lindy Ruff and Kraken bench boss Dave Hakstol had been touted by oddsmakers among the most likely candidates for an early firing if they didn’t get off to solid starts. Instead, both are now being mentioned in conversations about the Jack Adams Award for coach of the year.
Vegas bookmakers projected the Devils, a 63-point team last season, at an over under of 88.5 points this campaign. Instead, they’d entered Thursday at 29-12-3 and on pace for 114 points.
The Kraken, likewise, were coming off a 60-point season and projected for an over/under of 81.5. They instead entered Thursday at 26-14-4 and trending toward 104 points.