*Photo from 97.3 ESPN*
We're still seeing a rise of the Kraken in the Northwest. Matty Beniers had a goal and an assist, Yanni Gourde had a 3 point game, and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Philadelphia Flyers with a 6-2 victory on Thursday night in Seattle.
It was Gourde who shined the brightest for the Kraken, contributing two goals and an assist. Beniers and Justin Schultz each had a goal and an assist, while Jordan Eberle had two assists on the night. The Kraken improved to 31-18-6 and second in the Pacific Division with their latest win.
Gourde said after the game that "I thought we played faster than the last few games on the road. I thought we were checking a little bit better, even in the neutral zone. They weren't coming through the middle of the ice and in the neutral zone. I think that's the big key."
Starting the scoring for the Kraken was Jared McCann, who scored his 26th goal of the season 3:01 into the game to give the Kraken an early lead. At the 14:39 mark of the first, Gourde scored his 7th goal of the season to snap a goal drought and make it 2-0 Kraken. Schultz and Eeli Tolvanen picked up assists.
On the power play 5:52 into the second period, Schultz scored his 6th goal of the season to increase the Kraken lead to 3-0 with Eberle and Beniers assisting. Oliver Bjorkstrand then made it a 4-0 game on his 11th goal, with assists from Gourde and Jamie Oleksiak. Gourde then added a power play goal to make it 5-0 Kraken after two periods.
Just 14 seconds into the 3rd period, Travis Konecny scored for the Flyers to get them on the board, making it a 5-1 game on his 25th goal of the season. Beniers then scored 10:37 into the 3rd to make the score 6-1 with an unassisted goal. Konecny then made it a 6-2 game with his second goal of the night, assisted by Noah Cates.
McCann said of the win postgame that "Everyone was in the lanes. We were blocking shots. We were making them miss the net when we had to. I think that kind of speaks to our character in the room. Guys were stepping in lanes and blocking shots."
Drawing the start in goal for the Kraken was Philipp Grubauer, who had a solid game in net to get the win. Grubauer stopped 17 of the 19 shots he saw from the Flyers, good for a .895 save percentage. His record improves to 7-9-3 with the win.
It was Carter Hart starting in goal for the Flyers, who took the loss to drop to 16-16-9 in 41 games. Hart turned aside 15 of the 19 shots he faced, recording a .789 save percentage. He was pulled in favor of Samuel Ersson, who stopped 9 of the 11 shots the Kraken sent towards him.
Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk said of the loss on the road that "It was probably our worst game of the year, I'd say. Didn't do a lot of good things at all and really left our goalies out to dry a few times. Definitely disappointing, so let's have a good response our next game."
Both teams resume play over the weekend on Saturday. The Kraken remain at home as the Detroit Red Wings come to town, with Grubauer in line to start. Hart is the expected starter for the Flyers as they take on the Vancouver Canucks.
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