SEATTLE-AP – Maybe Seattle Kraken needs to be more diligent to follow its game plan all the time. This worked twice this season against the Florida Panthers, the NHL’s best team.
Mason Appleton scored his first goal in nearly two months 26 seconds before the end of the third period, Philipp Grubauer led 28 stops and the Kraken smack the Panthers 5-3 on Sunday night.
“For some reason we stick to the game plan when we played them,” Seattle forward Yanni Gourde said. “We don’t do this against different teams. But tonight we did it. The last time we played them, we did it. We were confident and we knew what to do against this team.”
Marcus Johansson, Gourde and Colin Blackwell all scored during Seattle’s second three-goal period, and Calle Jarnkrok added a goal in an abandoned net in the final seconds. The Kraken won for the third time in four games, and Grubauer continued his streak of good performances, while two of the Florida goals were poor rebounds that ended in Seattle netting.
Grubauer won his last three starts.
“That’s the biggest thing I see is being able to shrug your shoulders at a goal conceded and move on to the next stop,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “That was very important.”
Seattle swept both games this season against the Panthers, who entered the evening tied with Tampa Bay for the most NHL points with 61. Seattle defeated the Panthers 4-1 on Nov. 27 in Sunrise, Florida, a loss that robbed Florida of a 12th consecutive home win to start the season.
Anthony Duclair, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov have coined for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky performed 24 stops, but saw his sequence of five wins in the net come to an end.
“We had to run after the game and on the road, those are tough games to win when you’re watching the game,” Florida interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “We put ourselves in a really difficult position.”
Appleton delivered the winning goal with a flick behind Bobrovsky in the opening seconds of the third period as Seattle quickly exited its defensive zone. Appleton had not scored since he scored two goals in November. 29 in a win at Buffalo.
Grubauer made 12 stops in the third period, including some great stops on Duclair and Huberdeau after Florida removed Bobrovsky for an extra skater.
“I don’t think we deserved to win this game, but I think we had a lot of good opportunities at the end to at least equalize,” Barkov said.
Duclair was credited with her 18 goal of the season in the first period, when his shot was saved by Grubauer, but was distracted by the role of Carson Soucy Seattle-and in the net of Kraken.
Huberdeau’s goal in numerical superiority put Florida up 3-2 at 12:32 in the second half and less than 90 seconds after, Barkov’s shot was deflected by Pumpkin and flew over Grubauer’s shoulder to allow the Panthers to equalize at 3-3.
Seattle scored three times in the second half, including two goals 17 seconds apart, the fastest two-goal surge of the season in Seattle. Johansson brought Seattle back to 1-1 on an excellent pass from Mark Giordano at 5:02. The Kraken thwarted a 5-3 attempt at numerical advantage, but Pumpkin’s shot hit just after the numerical advantage ended, giving Seattle a 2-1 lead.
And 17 seconds after, Appleton’s shot hit the post of the goal, deflected into the air and onto the helmet of Colin Blackwell, overtaking Bobrovsky for a 3-1 lead on Kraken. It was Blackwell’s fourth goal of the season and his most unconventional.
NOTES: Soucy left midway through the first period with a lower-body wounds and did not return. … F Sam Bennett returned to Florida after he missed the last game in Vancouver. … F Patric Hornqvist missed his third consecutive game for the Panthers. … D Jamie This time missed his third consecutive game for Seattle. … The Seattle F Joonas Donskoi was stripped for the first time this season. Donskoi was one of three players who participated in each of the first 40 matches. Alex Wennberg and Adam Larsson are the only two players to show up at every game for Seattle.
