*Photo from ABC News*
Watch out in the Pacific Northwest, there's a Kraken being released. Jordan Eberle scored two goals, Will Borgen scored, and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Nashville Predators with a 5-1 victory on Tuesday night in Seattle.
For the first time in their young history, the Kraken have now won 5 straight games as they enjoy a much better start to their second season then their first, holding second place in the Pacific Division with a 8-4-2 record. Leading the way was Eberle, who potted two goals in a strong start to the game.
Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said of the win that "We started the game well, we were opportunistic on some turnovers that we created. We picked up where we left off at home. We've played real well here over the last stretch, and to have that start here was a good start to the hockey game. It was an important start to the hockey game."
Eberle got the scoring started very quickly, giving the Kraken a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the game with his second goal of the season. Borgen then doubled the lead to 2-0 at the 7:29 mark of the first period. Andre Burakovsky scored 15:16 into the period to make it 3-0 before Eberle scored again to make it 4-0 Kraken after one period.
In the second period, Filip Forsberg got the Predators on the board. He scored 10:25 into the middle frame, cutting the deficit to 4-1 with his 5th goal of the season, this one unassisted. There wouldn't be any more scoring until late in the 3rd period, when Brandon Tanev scored on an empty net to seal a 5-1 win for the Kraken.
Burakovsky said after the game that "I think the last couple of games here during our five-game winning streak, we've been having good starts. I think that was a little bit of a problem earlier in the year, where we came out a little bit sleeping, and we've been talking about it a lot now. I think we were coming out hot. That sets the tone, for sure."
Getting the start for the Kraken once again was Martin Jones, who put together a great game to improve his record to 7-3-1 with a win. Jones stopped all but one of the 25 shots on goal the Predators had, recording a sturdy .960 save percentage while doing so.
Predators starting goalie Juuse Saros was in net for the team, but was pulled after Eberle's goal, allowing 4 goals on 6 shots. Saros took the loss to drop to 3-6-1 this season. Backup goalie Kevin Lankinen came on and stopped all 13 shots he faced in relief.
Predators head coach John Hynes said of the loss that "It got away from us in the first. We had some tough decisions that we made that gave up some easy offense. Whether that was decisions up ice that created odd-man rushes, we had a couple of breakout turnovers that ended up right on their tape, right in the slot. That's not how we want to play in the first period, for sure."
Up next, the Predators head east for a Thursday night showdown against the Colorado Avalanche, with Saros likely to get the start. Jones is the projected starter for the Kraken when they face the Minnesota Wild at home on Friday night.
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