Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The Seattle Kraken have one of the best road records in the NHL at 5-1-1, while coming off a sweep of a trip that took them to Calgary, Minnesota and Pittsburgh.
The Kraken will look to find that winning formula at home, where they are 2-3-1, when the Nashville Predators visit Tuesday night.
The Kraken completed their trip with a 3-2 victory Saturday in Pittsburgh with Brandon Tanev, selected from the Penguins in the expansion draft a year ago, scoring the go-ahead goal with 3:39 remaining.
“Great for me, but I think it’s more important that the team got all six points on this road trip,” Tanev said. “That’s the mindset and the goal we had setting out to this road trip and the three games we played. We beat three good teams. That’s the idea we wanted to do.”
Yanni Gourde had a goal and two assists and Martin Jones made 35 saves for the Kraken, who have won a franchise-record four consecutive games.
“We’re playing as a team. Everybody is contributing,” Gourde said. “It’s really fun to play that way. All four lines, all (three defense pairs). Jonesy’s been unbelievable in net. It’s been really team wins.”
The key seems to have been the penalty kill, which was one of the league’s worst early in the season.
The Kraken killed off all nine penalties against on the trip and is 11-for-11 during the winning streak.
“The four guys out there (on the penalty kill) have been working hard blocking shots,” defenseman Carson Soucy said, according to The Seattle Times. “And I think that’s a big thing. We’ve done a lot of things lately that we weren’t (earlier). I don’t know if we were just missing early in the season but the dedication’s there right now and it’s paying off.”
The Predators are on a five-game Western swing. They’re 2-1-0 thus far, losing the opener at Edmonton before posting a 4-1 victory Thursday at Calgary and edging Vancouver 4-3 in a shootout Saturday.
Nashville will finish the trip with a stop at Colorado on Thursday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche.
Jordan Gross scored his first two career goals as the Predators rallied from a three-goal deficit in Vancouver.
Gross was playing in his second game with Nashville and 12th in the NHL.
“Really special. It’s something you’ve worked for for a long time and it felt great,” Gross said. “Didn’t have the best start personally and felt great to get one back for the team.”
Nino Niederreiter added a goal and an assist and Juuse Saros made 42 saves for the Predators, who won consecutive games for the first time since sweeping San Jose in the season-opening Global Series at Prague.
“As soon as we scored that first goal, I felt like we had a mental advantage on them,” said Mattias Ekholm, who had two assists against the Canucks. “They seemed to be on their heels a little bit. They were just flipping pucks out, and we kept coming at them and got another goal and after that, we pressured for a fourth, and it didn’t come until the shootout.”
–Field Level Media