VANCOUVER, B.C. — There were omens throughout this latest Northwest clash that the Kraken might finally prevail against a regional nemesis that’s had their number all five prior matchups in their brief history.
“They had a push and they capitalized on their chances,” Sprong said in a deathly quiet visitors’ locker room as the Kraken hurriedly packed in anticipation of the Christmas break now upon them. “Sometimes, that’s the way hockey goes but of course it’s not the way we want to end going into the break.”
If it wasn’t the 75-foot snap shot goal by Jared McCann to open Thursday night’s scoring, or the fact it took the Vancouver Canucks more than eight minutes to register a single shot, then goals just 10 seconds apart by Oliver Bjorkstrand and Daniel Sprong in the second period plus another soon after by Alex Wennberg should have settled things. But the omens are never all good for the Kraken when playing the Canucks and despite a two-goal third period lead, they coughed it up and took a 6-5 loss in a shootout when Elias Pettersson scored to complete the home side’s unlikely comeback.
Sprong had scored his second of the night just 64 seconds after a third period tally by the Canucks got them back within one. But with the Kraken up 5-3 and closing in on midway point of the final period, Brock Boeser scored a power-play goal to get Vancouver back within one.
Then, with the Kraken trying to hold on for dear life, Pettersson notched his second of the game with just 1:20 to go in regulation and the goalie pulled for an extra attacker to send things to the extra session.
“I think the crowd got into it, they started to push and we didn’t find an answer,” Sprong said. “They kept coming. If you keep coming, you’re going to get chances and they buried them.”
The Canucks at this point are mostly headed in a completely opposite direction from a Kraken squad now 19-11-3, though that’s never stopped them from pulling off victories out of nowhere whenever these teams meet.
Vancouver entered this Rogers Arena showdown having lost three straight at home, where they’d been a dismal 5-9-1 and gotten local fans buzzing about potential upcoming player dumps. But the Kraken, now 0-6-0 against their regional foe, had always presented a tonic for whatever ailed the Canucks, including a Climate Pledge Arena game back in October that snapped Vancouver’s seven-game winless skid to start the season.
The Kraken dominated large portions of that game but gave up some untimely power play goals that sank their cause. And for much of this one, history kept repeating as the Kraken outplayed Vancouver for much of the contest but couldn’t quite put things away.
“Obviously, the result tonight is disappointing,” said Wennberg, who’d snapped a nine-game scoreless drought by gathering in a loose puck and calmly depositing it into an empty net to put his team up 4-2 in the middle period. “I thought we played a really good game but unfortunately it didn’t work out. It is what it is. You’ve got to move on and try to get better.”
The one thing the Canucks do well is the power play, coming in at a 26% efficiency rate that was eighth best in the league.
They’d already used the man advantage to turn the tide in an opening period where the first 10 minutes was dominated by a Kraken team that led 1-0 on the long McCann shot that eluded Spencer Martin.
While the Canucks didn’t score with the man, they did hit a post behind Kraken netminder Jones and had a few more top-notch chances.
It wasn’t long after that the Canucks tied things up, with Lane Pederson converting a 2-on-1 pass at the goal mouth by team scoring leader Pettersson to even things heading to intermission.
But the Kraken struck quickly in the second period to regain the lead. Just more than three minutes in, Jaden Schwartz led a 2-on-1 rush and made a perfect pass across to Bjorkstand, who easily beat Martin.
Then, off the ensuing faceoff, Sprong scored on a redirect in front to make it a 3-1 game. Still, this being the Canucks, the Kraken weren’t getting off easy.
Petterson tipped a Luke Schenn snap shot from atop the right circle in behind Jones to get the Canucks back within a goal.
Wennberg’s ensuing goal seemed to give the Kraken some needed breathing room, but the Canucks once again didn’t make things easy. Andrei Kuzmenko got the home side back within a goal at 5:13 of the third period to tighten collars once again.
But Sprong’s second of the night, converting a goal-mouth pass from Brandon Tanev, looked to have put things away.
“That third goal injected a bit of life into them even though we got that back right away,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said of Kuzmenko’s marker early in the third. “That changed the tone of the period a little bit. And then we took a penalty a couple of minutes later and they again make it a one-goal game.”
Still, the Kraken were in a position to win with under two minutes to go. But a missed clearance led to a tiring line being out too long ahead of the tying goal.
“We’re here to win a hockey game and we didn’t do that, so that’s disappointing,” Hakstol said. “So, we’ll look at … just exactly what we did in that third period. And there’s a couple of things that we have to do better. That’s a game we feel we should be able to close out.”