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Russ Williams: Carolina "Cracks" Seattle, 4-1 |
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The Seattle Kraken faced a tough test on Saturday against one of the top contenders from the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, Dan Bylsma's team came up short in a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday night.
The Hurricanes, as they often do, established a territorial advantage quickly in the game and went on to win all three periods both on the scoreboard (1-0, 1-0, 2-1) and the underlying numbers including 14-5, 15-7 and 10-7 edges in shots on goal. The Kraken blocked 23 shot attempts by Carolina but still yielded 39 shots for the game to their own 19.
In short, it wasn't much of a contest. If not for Joey Daccord stopping 35 of 38 shots, the game would have been a blowout rather than "merely" a rather routine win for the Hurricanes.
Andrei Svechnikov (PPG, 2nd), Jack Drury (1st), Seth Jarvis (3rd) and Dmitri Orlov (ENG, 1st) scored for the Hurricanes while Frederik Andersen made 18 saves on 19 shots.
The one bright spot offensively for the Kraken came -- as usual of late -- as Matty Beniers set up a Jared McCann goal (5th) to briefly reduce a 2-0 deficit to one goal. Seattle did go 5-for-6 on the penalty kill but 0-for-3 on the power play.
The Kraken have lost three games in a row. The Hurricanes have won three in a row.
Next up: The Kraken (4-4-1) will head east to start a road trip. They will visit Montreal on Tuesday and Toronto on Thursday.
Release the Kraken!