A quick start by the Seattle Kraken and an early goal on Saturday night in Vegas only served to wake up the best team in the Pacific Division.
The Kraken dropped their fourth straight, falling 6-2 to the Golden Knights as Seattle continued to slide with the midpoint of the season approaching.
The Kraken (15-18-2) lost for the fifth time in six games and have earned points in just six of the past 15 games. Their reward for another lackluster result is the challenge of a difficult back-to-back on Sunday night in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche before getting a few days off around Christmas.
The hope when the Kraken left for the three-game trip was getting three points would be necessary to try and keep up with the other teams in the Western Conference that are starting to create distance between themselves and the Kraken in both the division and wild-card standings.
But a lifeless effort in Thursday night's 3-1 loss in Chicago put the Kraken in the position of needing to salvage something out of their trip to Sin City. And while Seattle started strong and presented more response than two nights earlier against the Blackhawks, the game eventually tilted toward the home side, who improved to 13-3-0 at T-Mobile Arena this season.
Vince Dunn and Jaden Schwartz scored power-play goals for the Kraken, but they were bookends to what was an otherwise dominant performance from the Golden Knights. The Kraken have been outscored 17-4 in the past four games.
Philipp Grubauer allowed five or more goals for the fourth time in his 13 starts this season, but there were several defensive breakdowns that led to a few of the goals. He finished with 28 saves.
The Kraken needed just 21/2 minutes to take a 1-0 lead when Dunn flicked a shot through a screen from Schwartz past Vegas goalie Ilya Samsonov just eight seconds into a power play. The Kraken had several chances to make it 2-0, including Eeli Tolvanen hitting the cross bar and Chandler Stephenson flipping a short-handed breakaway over the net on his backhand.
Vegas watched the Kraken fail on those opportunities and rapidly flipped the flow of the game. It started when Seattle was sloppy with a shift change and a miscommunication between Dunn and Adam Larsson left former Seattle Thunderbird Keegan Kolesar streaking unmarked down the wing and beat Grubauer to pull even at 1-1.
Just 71 seconds later, Vegas took a lead it wouldn't relinquished. Jack Eichel made an exceptional play on the wall stealing the puck from Dunn off a faceoff and found Brett Howden out front for his 13 th goal.
Oliver Bjorkstrand nearly pulled Seattle within 3-2 about seven minutes into the third period, but Samsonov got a piece of the shot and the deflected puck clipped the cross bar before coming to rest on top of the goal rather than trickling back to the ice.
A little more than a minute later, William Karlsson redirected Kolesar's pass in front of net and ended any hopes of a Seattle comeback. Noah Hanifin's goal with 8:32 left and an empty-net goal from Mark Stone only piled on to the frustrating vibes surrounding the Kraken.
Bjorkstrand appeared to be Seattle's best forward all night and the addition of Stephenson to the line with Bjorkstrand and Tolvanen seemed to create the best Kraken chances. Bjorkstrand and Stephenson recorded their 200th career assists on Dunn's opening goal. According to the NHL, it was the second time in league history two players both earned their 200 th career assists on the same goal.
But Seattle's other key forwards continue to be absent. Matty Beniers streak without a goal is now at 18 games. Jared McCann's only goal in the past 10 games was an empty-netter against Boston. Kaapo Kakko, in his second game with the Kraken and having yet to go through a full practice with his new teammates, played just 12:55 and didn't record a shot on goal.
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