This season hasn’t been smooth sailing for Kraken forward Ryan Donato.
He earned his keep during the Kraken’s inaugural season, and for a time it looked like that might be a problem. After 16 goals – good for fourth on the team – and a career-high 31 points, strengthening his potential salary arbitration case, restricted free agent Donato wasn’t extended a qualifying offer last summer. He said the way it all transpired surprised him, but he kept trying to make it work with Seattle.
He eventually signed with the Kraken and was in and out of the lineup, sometimes a healthy scratch. But he’s currently the team’s hottest hand and has goals in four straight games for the first time in his career, opening the scoring in Tuesday’s 5-2 Seattle win over the St. Louis Blues at Climate Pledge Arena.
“For me, it definitely is sweet. It’s exciting,” Donato said. “But honestly at the end of the day, I think everybody here can agree that it’s more about winning.”
It was Seattle’s first win against St. Louis (16-16-1) after going 0-3-1 in the previous four matchups.
From the Kraken zone, defenseman Adam Larsson spotted Donato cherry-picking — hovering behind a trio of Blues defenders waiting for a well-placed pass. Larsson fired the puck ahead and Donato tossed it between his forehand and backhand, getting St. Louis goaltender Thomas Greiss to drop before scoring his seventh of the season.
More than half of his seven goals on the year have come during this streak.
It started with an impressive read from Larsson, whose bobblehead was handed out to the first 10,000 fans who braved the cold and snow to watch the Kraken (18-10-3) win their second straight.
“Him going backward, with his momentum carrying him that way, to be able to get it all the way across his body and up that far — that was awesome,” Donato said.
“Going in on the breakaway, I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best.”
During the middle period, Seattle’s Carson Soucy was set up by his defensive partner, Will Borgen, for his second goal of the season. Soucy jabbed his stick out one-handed, more like a trick shot in a game of pool, and sent it over the Blues goalie to make it 2-0 Kraken.
Seattle’s fourth goal, which came in the final minute of the second period, was another bank shot straight from the billiard hall. Jared McCann collected his blocked shot and threw it on net from behind the goal line. He put it off Greiss’ skate to make it 4-0.
Two minutes before that, the Kraken’s Morgan Geekie found Daniel Sprong for a breakaway. Sprong converted and Geekie secured his second assist of the night.
Brandon Tanev was awarded Seattle’s first penalty shot of the season and second ever during the third period. McCann had the other attempt last season, on Jan. 17 against the Chicago Blackhawks. Both times the opposing goaltender had the answer. Tanev ran out of runway and Greiss (28 saves) shut him down.
St. Louis’ Colton Parayko ended Martin Jones’ (22 saves) shutout bid six minutes into the third period. The Blues added another goal with a single second left in a man advantage, then Tanev scored into the empty net.
Jones positioned himself well, particularly in a first period that was heavy on close-in chances. He also came up in big in the second period, between Kraken goals.
“(Up) 2-0, a couple of real good saves on the inside for us,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s a great win. There’s a lot of pieces we like out of this hockey game. There’s also some things that we have to clean up as we go into Vancouver.”