EDMONTON, Alberta — There was a feeling among the Kraken coming in that this latest road contest represented the unofficial ninth game of a trip that officially ended two contests ago.
Playing the Oilers here Tuesday night after finally having returned home for a lone matchup the prior afternoon seemed akin to cruel and unusual punishment. And it certainly got crueler as this 5-2 loss to the Oilers progressed, with the Kraken visibly slower and looking road-weary from late in the first period onward.
Vince Dunn looked as if he’d breathed life into his team by scoring from atop the left faceoff circle just 22 seconds into the final period, drawing the Kraken within a goal and extending his points streak to a franchise-record eight games. But just 1:01 after that, off a Zach Hyman rush, Eeli Tolvanen inadvertently jabbed at a loose puck and batted it in behind Martin Jones to restore Edmonton’s two-goal lead.
Ryan McLeod then made it a three-goal game midway through the third by slotting home a puck after the Oilers began throwing it around the Kraken net at-will.
Losing back-to-back to a pair of expected playoff teams in Edmonton and Tampa Bay won’t exactly devastate a Kraken squad that set an NHL record by sweeping its prior seven-game road swing. But it did allow the Oilers to maintain strong hope of eventually catching the Kraken, whereas a loss would have opened a seven-point gap between them in the Pacific Division.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said pregame his team knew this would feel like the culmination of a nine-game trip despite Monday’s lone home contest.
“This is, in a lot of respect, the final game of that road trip,” said Hakstol, whose team began that lengthy swing right here at Rogers Place arena exactly two weeks prior. “And we approached it at that (last) time we were here: Let’s take one opportunity, one game at a time — to add a little cliché to it. But our guys really have done that and it’s no different here today. Every game on the road trip had a little bit different challenge to it … so, do the very best you can to overcome it and be successful.”
And the Kraken certainly started off like they would do just that.
But then the legs they’d used to work their way to an early lead on a Daniel Sprong power play goal redirected in off defender Darnell Nurse just weren’t there as much by period’s end. That’s when Connor McDavid grabbed a puck in his own end, skated untouched up the ice and didn’t stop until he’d fired a wrist shot past goalie Jones to tie the score with just under six minutes remaining in the frame.
That period also saw unheralded Oilers forward Warren Foegel twice get in alone on Martin Jones only to be denied. But it would be Foegel getting the final laugh in the middle period after the Oilers had retaken the lead, scoring from a seated position on the ice to make it 3-1 after his team had three or four cracks at rebounds in front of the Kraken net.
Jones appeared to have difficulty corralling loose pucks at times, having a point shot trickle by him earlier that period with the score still tied. The puck lay by itself tantalizingly in the crease before Spokane native Derek Ryan raced in and slammed it home to put Edmonton ahead 2-1.
