VANCOUVER, B.C. — After serving two fighting majors, John Hayden hit the Vancouver Canucks where it hurt – as far as the preseason goes.
Hayden scored the tying goal and the Kraken forced overtime Thursday night at Rogers Arena after trailing by two heading into the third period. Ryan Donato scored on a breakaway with less than a minute remaining before the shootout, giving Seattle a 4-3 win.
“Preseason’s pretty competitive, people shouldn’t be mistaken,” Hayden said. “Guys are fighting for jobs, playing hard. Two competitive groups (out there) and physical play happens.
“The fights were ugly. The game got ugly at times, but I thought we stuck together and did a pretty good time.”
Tye Kartye and Kole Lind each scored to get the Kraken within a goal. Seattle is undefeated through three preseason games. The Kraken have a rematch against each team they’ve faced so far.
Seattle lost two veterans to injury in the second period and neither returned to the game. Defenseman Michal Kempny was crunched into the boards behind his own net and fell to his knees before skating off. The veteran, who signed as a free agent this summer, didn’t play another shift.
Winger Joonas Donskoi – who took part in the ceremonial puck drop – collided with teammate Lind in a tangle with a Canucks player, returned to the bench for about a minute and then headed down the tunnel. Kraken coach Dave Hakstol didn’t have an update on either player after the game.
Early in the third period and with Seattle trailing 3-1, Morgan Geekie went for a tip of Will Borgen’s shot. Lind nudged it over the goal line. Hayden tied the game with 7:27 left in regulation.
The gloves went flying three times in the first period alone and Hayden had the Canucks’ special attention. Hayden fought Kyle Burroughs late in the first and then Dakota Joshua early in the second. Neither was the stuff of highlight reels. Hayden and Joshua extended the fight but switched to words, jawing between the penalty boxes.
“That’s a hard job,” Hakstol said. “He ended up in two scraps. Fittingly, and maybe (in) a little poetic justice, he scores the game-tying goal.”
The Canucks threw many of their NHL regulars into the lineup against the Kraken, but it was a 26-year-old rookie out of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League who put Vancouver up 2-0. Andrei Kuzmenko pinched in from the blue line, took a pass from Quinn Hughes and sent a long, low shot past Joey Daccord.
It was the first preseason goal allowed by the Kraken. The first two games were 3-0 shutouts with four goaltenders splitting time.
Kuzmenko scored the next one on the power play. With Shane Wright in the box for holding, Kuzmenko tapped the puck into a wide-open cage.
“Thank God we found our legs,” Hayden said. “I thought it was a tough start, but a real good test with a young group. They had some of their big dogs in. It was a physical game but all-around I just think it was a good learning curve and a good sign that there’s a ton of resiliency in this group.”
The Kraken successfully challenged an apparent third Canucks goal and got one back nine seconds into a power play. Wright, Donato, Andrew Poturalski, Ryker Evans and Kartye went out for the man advantage.
Wright took the initial shot, then Kartye took three whacks at the rebound. The first found goalie pad, the second jumped his stick blade and the third soared over Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko. Evans picked up the secondary assist on Kartye’s first goal of the preseason.
Vancouver’s second attempt at a third goal stuck. Tanner Pearson gave the Canucks power play (2 for 5) another conversion.
Hakstol said he could feel that his group had loosened up after the second period.
“We got a little simpler, we started skating, had a couple good forechecks. It’s little things that tend to turn momentum,” Hakstol said. “That’s a real credit to a young group of guys in that dressing room.”
Daccord handled the first half of the game for the Kraken and made 18 stops. Playing near his hometown of North Vancouver for the first time in a Kraken jersey, Martin Jones entered midway through and stopped all 15 shots he faced.
“We just had a blast,” Hayden said. “We didn’t quit. It was a fun night.”