VANCOUVER, B.C. — Going down two men in an early second period penalty-kill situation while already trailing by a goal didn’t immediately seem like a Kraken tonic to turn Tuesday night’s contest around.
But the ensuing two-man advantage for the hometown Canucks proved anything but advantageous, with the Kraken getting a breakaway chance once the first penalized player returned, then a tying goal seconds later by Brandon Tanev off an odd-man rush. Jordan Eberle scored a go-ahead goal five minutes after that and the Kraken never looked back in a 5-2 victory that brings them ever closer to clinching their first playoff chance.
Jaden Schwartz gave the Kraken a two-goal advantage before the period ended, redirecting a Daniel Sprong shot that touched two sticks before heading in for a power-play marker. It was the fourth straight game in which the Kraken have scored on the power play, the first time they’ve done that since the season’s opening month.
Schwartz also became the fourth Kraken player to reach the 20-goal mark on a night Oliver Bjorkstrand — who has 19 — missed his first game of the season after returning to Seattle to be with his wife, Jill, for the birth of the couple’s first child. Matty Beniers added an empty-net goal late to seal it.
Coupled with Calgary’s surprising loss to Chicago, the Kraken moved seven points ahead of a Flames team with four games remaining to secure a final Western Conference playoff spot. A Flames loss to Winnipeg on Wednesday would ensure Calgary can no longer catch the Kraken.
Meanwhile, Nashville defeated Vegas in overtime Tuesday to remain eight points back of the Kraken with five games to play. The Kraken own the tiebreaker, meaning a victory against Arizona on Thursday night clinches their first ever postseason trip.
The Kraken could actually get to the playoffs sooner if Calgary loses in regulation Wednesday and the Predators drop Thursday’s earlier contest in identical fashion. Either way, the Kraken again took care of business Tuesday and improved to 43-22-8 by winning a key road matchup against a regional rival that typically saves its best hockey for head-to-head games against them.
Things didn’t start off great for the Kraken, falling behind 2-0 in an opening period in which they appeared sluggish on the back end of back-to-back games. But after early goals by Elias Pettersson and Anthony Beauvillier on the first four shots directed at Martin Jones, the Kraken got a fortunate one back from Yanni Gourde that sneaked its way through a partial screen before the period ended.
Then came the early second period penalties, with Vince Dunn going off for tripping at 2:17 and then Alex Wennberg getting called for high-sticking 1:06 later. That gave the Canucks a five-on-three advantage for 54 seconds, but by the time it was over, they probably wished they’d declined the penalty.
Vancouver’s power play was looking sloppy, with poor and sometimes indifferent passing even before Dunn stepped out of the box. But once he did, he was sent in alone on goalie Collin Delia.
While Delia made the save on Dunn’s wrist shot attempt from 24 feet out, the teams barely had time for a line change before Tanev was leading a 2-on-1 rush back into Vancouver’s end.
Tanev drifted deep into the left faceoff circle, then fired a wrist shot past Delia to tie the score. After the goal, Tanev circled back toward the side glass and gave a celebratory fist pump toward the crowd — liberally filled with boisterous Kraken supporters.
Those visiting fans got increasingly louder as the middle period progressed. The Kraken would take the lead to stay just past the midway mark when a puck popped out to Jordan Eberle from a corner scrum and he beat Delia with a close-in shot high to his glove side.
Things grew chippy toward the period’s end with Will Borgen wrestling onetime Seattle Thunderbirds junior star Ethan Bear to the ice during a fight. Vancouver took some penalties of its own and paid for it late when a Sprong shot was redirected first by Eberle and then by Schwartz on a second touch.
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