Sam Lafferty, elevated to the first line, scored a goal and Thatcher Demko made 23 saves as the Vancouver Canucks pulled away in the third period to defeat the host Seattle Kraken 5-1 on Friday.
Teddy Blueger, Dakota Joshua, Nils Hoglander and Ilya Mikheyev also scored and Nils Aman and Conor Garland had two assists apiece for the Canucks, who had lost three of their previous four games — including a 4-3 decision to visiting Seattle on Nov. 18.
Tye Kartye scored the lone goal for the Kraken, who had a five-game point streak snapped (3-0-2). Joey Daccord stopped 22 of 27 shots.
With Vancouver leading 2-1, Lafferty scored an insurance goal at 9:43 of the third period. He redirected Filip Hronek’s slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle just inside the near post.
Hoglander tallied at 12:38 of the third, beating Daccord with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle on a two-on-one rush.
Mikheyev capped the scoring at 17:30 on a power play with a wrist shot from the low slot.
Blueger opened the scoring with a short-handed breakaway at 5:05 of the first period.
It appeared the Kraken tied the score on the power play at 6:59 of the first on a wrist shot by Matty Beniers from the top of the left faceoff circle. Canucks coach Rick Tocchet challenged the play, and a video review determined Seattle was offside.
Joshua gave the Canucks a 2-0 lead at 12:07 of the second. Daccord made a left pad save on Garland’s shot from the high slot, but Joshua was alone at the top of the crease to shovel the rebound inside the right post.
The Kraken got on the board at 17:29 of the second. Defenseman Vince Dunn intercepted a Vancouver clearance attempt at the blue line and fed Kartye for a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Demko to the glove side.
Kraken forward Brandon Tanev sustained a lower-body injury after taking a hard hit from Hoglander late in the first period. Tanev didn’t return.
–Field Level Media
