On Monday, March 31, the Seattle Kraken hosted the Dallas Stars for their second matchup in three days. The Stars repeated their earlier success on Saturday, defeating the Kraken 3-1. After the Stars won the first game of the season series back on Oct. 13, the Kraken have lost all three matches against Dallas this season.
Kraken Opened the Scoring Early
Just 62 seconds from the opening puck drop, the Kraken scored the first goal of the night. Adam Larsson had the puck by the boards, where he dropped it down for Kaapo Kakko. Kakko skated around the net, but he was being pressured by Evgenii Dadonov. He passed to Jaden Schwartz, who followed in Kakko’s footsteps, skating it behind the net. Schwartz took a shot after he rounded the net, but it was blocked by Casey DeSmith. Kakko came up the center of the ice with speed and recovered the rebound. With a second shot, he scored the first goal of the night.
With this goal, Kakko broke his personal best point total in a single season. Previously, his highest point total was 40 points. He recorded this during the 2022-23 season with the New York Rangers. Kakko was traded to the Kraken on Dec. 18 in exchange for Will Borgen. Before the trade, he recorded 14 points, via four goals and ten assists with the Rangers. So far this season with Seattle, he has recorded 27 points via ten goals and 17 assists. Together, this brings his point total to 41 for the season. With seven more games left in the season, Kakko still can increase his point total.
The Kraken scored on their first shot of the night, and even though they took 35 more shots over the course of the game, they could not find the back of the net again.
Kraken Found No Success on the Power Play
Despite three chances on the extra man advantage, one in the first period and two in the second, the Kraken failed to score here. Dallas has the best penalty kill percentage (PK%) in the league at 84.7%. Unfortunately, Seattle has one of the worst power play percentages (PP%) in the league at 18.9%. Ranked 23rd overall, the Kraken often struggle to find success on the power play. This game was no different.
Related: DeSmith Makes 36 Saves, Stars Beat Kraken 3-1 for 6th Straight Win
On the flip side, Seattle had three penalty kills in this game. They managed to kill all three, despite coming in 21st in the league in PK% at 76.9%. On both PK% and PP%, the Kraken are towards the middle of the pack, closer to the bottom of the overall league standings. While the Kraken found success on the penalty kill in this game, it would have been nice to see them succeed on the power play.
Final Score Could Have Been Much Higher
Philipp Grubauer recorded another loss in his 25th game of the season. He is now on a two-game losing streak. However, he should not be upset by his performance in this game.
Grubauer recorded 28 saves on 20 shots on net. He only allowed two goals, earning him a SV% of .933. Since returning from his month-long stint with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, this is his second-highest SV%, his highest being recorded against the Flyers on March 8 at .958.
After having a less-than-stellar start to the season, Grubauer should be proud of his performance here. He helped keep Seattle in the game, saving as many shots as he did. The Stars are also a playoff team, while the Kraken have already been eliminated. To make all those saves against a much stronger team, Grubauer should keep his head up after this game.
Kraken Head North
The Kraken will travel north to Canada, where they will take on the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, April 2.
