The Kraken have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs and are looking forward to a high draft pick this summer. Counterproductive to the latter cause, they’re on their longest win streak since mid-November.
They played the spoiler again Monday and improved to 3-0 on a five-game road trip, hanging on for a 2-1 victory over the playoff-bound L.A. Kings.
Early on, Quinton Byfield scored a one-handed stunner for L.A.
While tangled with Seattle center Shane Wright right off a faceoff and drifting backward toward Joey Daccord’s net, Byfield shook his stick arm free. He batted the puck out of midair and pulled it around Daccord to score, precise and controlled even without his other hand to steady the shot. The Kings led less than two minutes into the game.
With less than two minutes remaining in that same first period, the Kraken managed to tie the game and take the lead. Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak centered the puck into the crease, which contained overcommitted L.A. goalie Darcy Kuemper and lurking Seattle center Matty Beniers. Beniers scored his 19th of the season from close range.
Defenseman Brandon Montour then hit a career high with his 17th goal of the season. The Kraken were playing four-on-four with 31 seconds left before the first intermission. That turned into the unlikely winner.
Kraken winger Eeli Tolvanen enjoyed a pair of second-period breakaways but the scoreboard still read 2-1. Kuemper’s 26 saves and Daccord’s 28 stops had a lot to do with that.
The St. Louis Blues have been the talk of the Western Conference thanks to a franchise-record, 12-game win streak that ended Monday after launching them back into a wild-card spot. That run overshadowed a stellar Kings spring. They had won 13 of 16 games since March 8 and four straight heading into the Kraken game. L.A. has already clinched a playoff spot.
Notes: Before the game the Kraken reassigned 20-year-old Jani Nyman to the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the American Hockey League. Nyman had six goals and six assists in his first NHL recall, which spanned 12 games.
On Sunday, Coachella Valley clinched an AHL playoff spot, their third in three years of play and first under head coach Derek Laxdal. Laxdal replaced now-Kraken coach Dan Bylsma last summer.
Nyman put himself in good position to compete for a Kraken roster spot next fall, and a Calder Cup playoff run will cement that further. Nyman was an All-Star this season for the Firebirds and returns in time to get reacclimated before the regular season ends April 20. Before his Kraken recall he led AHL rookies in goals. The 2022 second-round draft pick scored 26 to go with 15 assists through 55 games.
Also on Monday the Kraken inked 2023 fourth-round draft pick Andrei Lashko to a three-year, two-way entry-level ($950,000 AAV) deal starting next season.
Lashko, a 6-foot-2, 184-pound center, appeared in 67 regular-season games with the Niagara IceDogs of the Ontario Hockey League, recording 70 points (34 goals). He led all IceDogs in power-play goals (16) during his rookie OHL season.
