SEATTLE — From the opening puck drop on a new year, the Kraken served notice Sunday that they planned to leave the final few weeks of 2022 behind.
Checks were being thrown, skates dug in hard and the shots — oh, the shots — were raining down on the visiting New York Islanders from all directions. The Kraken put enough of them behind stellar Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin to secure a 4-1 victory and snap a three-game skid that had relegated them to fourth place in the Pacific Division.
The Kraken outshot the Islanders 35-19 overall, much to the delight of the announced 17,151 in attendance at Climate Pledge Arena as the Kraken won for the first time in 12 days — ending their longest winless stretch of the season thus far. In fact, there were so many Kraken shots, the arena goal horn operator got confused and mistakenly sounded a celebratory blast after Sorokin had redirected a close-in chance into the corner.
