*Photo from TheScore*
The NHL's newest team, the Seattle Kraken, have had their ups and have had a lot of downs to begin their inaugural season. Entering a difficult place to play in South Florida, a few Florida Panthers had their revenge games. Jordan Eberle scored twice, Ryan Donato scored, and the Kraken defeated the Panthers 4-1 on Saturday night.
It was a return to the FLA Live Arena for former Panthers Chris Driedger and Alex Wennberg, with Driedger being chosen by the Kraken in the expansion draft, and Wennberg signing with Seattle in free agency. The Kraken improved to 7-13-1 this season with the victory, with Driedger being the starting goalie in his return to Florida.
Driedger said of being back that "It's just good to see those guys. Honestly it was a bit of a challenge trying to just keep my head in the game. And it's so familiar being in this barn. Just seeing those guys on the other side of the ice is a bit different. But at the end of the day, I just need to focus. Had some family at the game too, and it was a great night to just go out there, feel good and get a win."
The Kraken got things started quickly against the Panthers, with former New York Islander Eberle scoring just 2:22 into the game, scoring his 10th goal of the season to give Seattle a 1-0 lead while on the power play. 6:59 into the game and the Panthers provided the answer, with Patric Hornqvist scoring his 4th goal of the season to tie the game 1-1. Up next came Donato, scoring his 3rd of the season 10:40 into the period, making it a 2-1 Kraken lead.
After a scoreless second period, Eberle picked up where he left off, scoring his 11th of the season and second of the night 5:57 into the 3rd period, widening the lead to 3-1, assisted by Yanni Gourde. With the Panthers net empty with 3:35 left in the game, Jamie Oleksiak picked up his first goal of the season, making it 4-1 Kraken to seal the win.
Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol was happy with the win, saying after the game that "We won start to finish tonight and we really needed to do that, especially in this building against this team. They hadn't lost in this building yet this year, so it was a good 60-minute performance for us."
It was Driedger in net for the Kraken, as he was told well in advance that he would be starting this game. It went pretty well for Driedger, picking up his first win of the season to move to 1-2-0 so far. Driedger saved 33 of the 34 shots the Panthers sent his way, posting a .971 save percentage in the win, bringing his season total to .870 in 4 appearances this season.
The Panthers entered this game at home having won their first 11 games at home, which was tied with the 1963-1964 Chicago Blackhawks for the most consecutive home wins to start a season in NHL history. Of course, leave it to former Panther Driedger to deny them of a record 12 straight home wins to open the season.
In goal for the Panthers was young Spencer Knight, who had usurped Driedger as the backup goalie. Knight turned aside 23 of the 26 shots on goal the Kraken had, posting a .885 save percentage in the loss. With the loss, Knight's record fell to 5-3-1 in 10 appearances this season, 8 of which are starts.
Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said of the loss that "They play hard every night and we knew that coming in. We've done so much at home where we're kind of rolling wave after wave of attack. Tonight we had a hard time generating much momentum. Credit to them, they played very tight."
The Kraken get back into action with a road matchup against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night, with Philipp Grubauer to get the start as the Kraken look to keep rolling. The Panthers square off against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night at home, with Sergei Bobrovsky to get the start in goal.
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