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The Seattle Kraken tried their luck in Sin City for the first time this season this past Friday and were victorious over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Seattle downed Vegas, 4-2, Friday, Nov. 25 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It should also be noted that road teams in the NHL went 8-5 on Black Friday.
“They were quicker than us,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “They won a lot more races and one on one battles. They executed better than us. They were just the better team.”
This was the first time Seattle had beaten Vegas in franchise history. The last time these teams squared off was Oct. 15 in Climate Pledge Arena where Vegas walked away with a 5-2 win in the third regular season game of the year.
“We’ll move on and try to get a win tomorrow,” Captain Mark Stone said.
Left-wing Andre Burakovsky led the way for the Kraken with two goals on the night.
“When you are home for thanksgiving, it’s great to be home,” Cassidy said. “It’s family, it’s all that stuff, everyone enjoys that. Then when you are back to work, you are a little behind, I think. The visiting teams have had to do without that and they’re just more prepared to go.”
The Golden Knights will play the third of their three-game homestand on Saturday as they welcome in the Vancouver Canucks for a Western Conference showdown. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and can be seen on AT&T Sportsnet.
With the loss, Vegas is now 16-5-1 with 33 points, but still lead the Kings and Kraken in the Pacific Division standings. Seattle has closed their gap to Vegas in the division standings with this win, now only sitting six points behind Vegas with 27 points. Seattle is also now on a four-game winning streak.
“If you don’t come ready to play every night, then you’re not going to have a chance,” center Jack Eichel said. “Credit to them, they outplayed us.”
Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer finished the night with 20 saves on 22 shots faced for a final save percentage of .909.
Vegas goalie Adin Hill didn’t have as good of a night as he saved 24 shots on 28 shots faced for a final save percentage of .857.
It was a tale of two separate ten-minute stretches in the first period. Seattle came out as the more aggressive team in the opening ten minutes, getting shots to the net and creating a lot of pressure on Hill.
Seattle scored two goals in the opening eight minutes.
Center Nicolas Roy was the scorer of the first Vegas goal to cut the deficit down to 2-1. This was Roy’s first game back after missing the last three games due to injury.
“It felt pretty good,” Roy said. “Had a nice practice yesterday so I feel pretty good.”
Vegas responded with two goals of their own in the last 9:14 of the first period to take a 2-2 tie into the second period.
Seattle seized control of the game in the second period when Burakovsky netted his second goal of the game to take the lead 3-2. Right-wing Jordan Eberle extended the Kraken lead to 4-2 when he scored with less than two minutes to go in the period.