Beniers Scores, Schwartz Stays Hot, Bjorkstrand Tallies Twice
We finally now know what 21-year-old Matty Beniers needed to break him out of his 13-game scoring slump - more teammates his own age.
Beniers' first goal of the season, energy from a pair of 20-year-olds up from AHL Coachella Valley, and last-minute heroics from Oliver Bjorkstrand led the Seattle Kraken to a heart-pounding 4-3 victory Thursday over the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.
1st Period
2021 Kraken draft pick Ryan Winterton, an injury replacement along with Shane Wright, will remember this game forever.
“I was legit about to fall asleep when (Firebirds) coach (Dan Bylsma) called us" Winterton said in quotes from CTVNews.ca. "I think I missed the first call. He called me back and I thought I should answer. I was definitely up quick, I wasn’t tired after that. It was awesome. I was scared for a bit, but it was the best news I could have got.”
With parents Garth and Leslie in attendance - they flew in from Toronto - Winterton gets an early shot on goal. Later, he springs Devin Shore on a breakaway, which Colorado goalie Ivan Prosvetov denies.
Nathan MacKinnon has made a league full of NHL defensemen look like traffic cones. This time it's Justin Schultz who gets blown past, but Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer makes the save.
For the 10th time in 14 games, Seattle scores first. Jaden Schwartz picks the top corner for a 1-0 lead at 18:37.
Schwartz raises his team-leading goal total to seven, and points streak to eight games. The fourth line of Winterton, Shore, and Wright, who hemmed in the Avalanche on the preceding shift, gets congratulations on the bench from Kraken coach Dave Hakstol.
2nd Period
Kraken TV voice John Forslund calls Oliver Bjorkstrand "The Maestro." Spoiler alert: later in the game, he turns into "The Magician." But for now, at 4:29, he extends the Seattle lead to 2-0.
See if this sounds familiar; the Seattle two goal lead doesn't last a half-minute. The Avs make it 2-1, on a Bowen Byrum goal at 4:57.
Welcome to NHL 2023-24 NHL goal scorers club, Matty Beniers! The reigning Calder Trophy winner bags his first, on the power play at 11:35, to restore Seattle's two goal cushion.
Nathan MacKinnon brings Colorado back within one, 3-2, at 15:40.
3rd Period
For the Kraken and their fans, only one question really matters: can Seattle reverse a season-long trend of surrendering leads.
In a word: no.
For 12 minutes, the period is marked by one other word - intensity - including tight checking, hard hits, attacks and counter-attacks, and assorted rough stuff.
With 7:45 left, Colorado's Valeri Nichushkin ties the game, 3-3.
Both teams come up empty on late power plays. Mere seconds from what seems like yet another inevitable Seattle overtime, Oliver Bjorkstrand takes matters into his own hands.
Bjorkstrand eludes two Colorado defenders behind their net, freeing himself for a behind the back pass on Eeli Tolvanen's tape. Prosvetov makes the short-range save, but look who's wound his way to the far side goal line - Bjorkstrand.
Bjorkstrand at 19:28, from Tolvanen and Adam Larsson - and, if an assist could be awarded to a goal-scorer, from Oliver Bjorkstrand, too. The Kraken lead again, 4-3, and this one they hold on to.
Postgame
The Kraken victory wouldn't have been possible without a playoff-worthy 23 blocks, more than one of which stung.
In the final two minutes and the score tied, defenseman Vince Dunn blocked a shot off his boot, struggled to rise where he'd fallen, and hobbled off the ice.
With Seattle protecting a lead in the final 10 seconds, both Tolvanen and Schwartz absorbed shots rather than let them test Grubauer.
Anytime the rest of the season that the Kraken want to be reminded how they can stand toe-to-toe with the league's heavyweights, they need only re-watch these sequences.
Seattle improves to 5-6-3, heading home to play the surprisingly unstable Edmonton Oilers Saturday night.
