The Seattle Kraken have put themselves in the holiday spirit with a season-best five-game points streak as they head into a road matchup against the struggling Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.
It will be both teams’ final game before Christmas, and the Kraken could receive a bonus gift in the form of another victory after coming out on top 2-1 in a road matchup against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.
The Kraken are 3-0-2 over their points streak and they are 1-0-1 on what is technically a four-game road trip, although they won’t complete the stretch of games until they head to Calgary after Christmas.
Against the Kings, Brandon Tanev and Jordan Eberle scored goals for the Kraken, with Eberle’s score at 6:27 of the final period putting Seattle up 2-0. They held on despite giving up a short-handed goal with 12 minutes to play as Joey Daccord tied his franchise record with 42 saves.
Daccord held off the Kings, who played 6-on-4 hockey for two minutes of the final 2:47 after Los Angeles pulled its goalie and Seattle’s Will Borgen was called for high sticking. Daccord also fared well early, making 20 saves in the first period alone.
“It’s always nice to get off to a good start,” Daccord said. “When you get peppered with pucks, it definitely helps you settle in quicker.”
The Seattle points streak has come with Daccord in goal for each game. In fact, he has been in net for the past seven Kraken games, going 3-1-3 with a 1.86 goals-against average in the extended stretch.
The Kraken head toward the end of the calendar year with a number of injuries. Jared McCann, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Andre Burakovsky and Jaden Schwartz all were out against the Kings. That is in addition to goalie Philipp Grubauer, who is on an extended absence with a lower-body injury.
The Ducks are in a woeful 3-14-0 stretch going back to Nov. 15, and they appeared to be getting healthier with defenseman Jamie Drysdale (lower body) and forward Mason McTavish (upper body) both returning against the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
And while Drysdale played well, the Ducks were out of sync in a 3-0 defeat.
“I think it was the worst game we played all year in terms of execution,” a frustrated Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “We couldn’t shoot a puck. It was squirting off our sticks.”
Anaheim is close to getting dynamic young forward Trevor Zegras back from a lengthy absence because of a lower-body injury, but another young forward, Leo Carlsson, was injured against the Flames.
Carlsson went down near center ice midway through the third period and had to be helped off the ice with what appeared to be a right leg injury. Carlsson, who turns 19 Tuesday, has eight goals and seven assists in 23 games of his rookie season.
“It’s not good,” Cronin said about Carlsson, who is expected to be examined further on Friday. “I’ll leave that up to the medical staff.”
The Kraken and Ducks are meeting for the first time this season and won’t square off again until they play three games in an 11-day stretch starting March 26.
Seattle went 3-0-1 against Anaheim last season by averaging 4.5 goals scored over the four games.
–Field Level Media
