SUNRISE, Florida — It was clear early on in Sunday night’s latest and much-needed road victory that the Kraken were prepared to do the work that had gone missing in recent games.
Barely one minute had ticked off the game clock of this 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers when Jared McCann jumped on an offensive zone turnover, backhanded the puck out to the high slot and watched Matty Beniers unleash a cannon-blast slapper for the opening goal. Even after the Panthers had tied things in the second period, the Kraken aggressively pursued the puck deep in the Florida end and eventually notched a go-ahead goal just 1:31 later.
Oliver Bjorkstrand did a good job keeping the puck in at the blue line and fed a pass to Yanni Gourde, who slipped it to Andre Burakovsky just atop the right faceoff circle. Burakovsky unleashed a powerful wrist shot that Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had little chance on and the Kraken were ahead to stay.
