The Seattle Kraken jumped out to an early lead and never looked back to secure their first home win of the season, 5-1 against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.
Daniel Sprong had a goal and two assists, and Brandon Tanev and Vince Dunn each had two assists for the Kraken. Martin Jones made 15 saves.
Dylan Cozens scored and Eric Comrie made 19 saves for the Sabres, whose three-game winning streak was snapped.
Jamie Oleksiak gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 2:20 of the first period. After Sprong’s chance at the bottom of the right circle was stopped by Comrie, the forward directed the rebound into the high slot for the streaking Oleksiak.
Morgan Geekie doubled it to 2-0 at 5:39. Tanev backhanded a lob pass through the neutral zone for Geekie, who broke in and beat Comrie glove side.
The Kraken outshot the Sabres 11-5 in the opening frame.
Sprong capitalized on a Buffalo turnover to extend it to 3-0 at 4:46 of the second period. Sabres forward Vinnie Hinostroza’s backhand pass deflected off a Kraken stick and redirected into the slot for Sprong, who got Comrie to bite on a deke before sliding it by his outstretched left leg.
Cozens got the Sabres on the board at 12:25. Jones made the save on Hinostroza’s shot from above the left circle, but Cozens was at the side of the net to clean up the rebound and narrow it to 3-1.
The Kraken restored their three-goal lead a few minutes later on the power play. Andre Burakovsky sent a cross-ice feed to Jared McCann in the left circle for a quick strike to make it 4-1 at 16:07.
The Sabres appeared to score a power-play goal of their own five minutes into the third period, but Seattle challenged for offside and the goal was overturned after video review.
Matty Beniers made it 5-1 at 9:45 on the power play when his shot from the goal line hit Buffalo defenseman Lawrence Pilut and went into the net.
–Field Level Media
