Brandon Tanev scored twice as the expansion Seattle Kraken earned their first home victory, defeating the visiting Montreal Canadiens 5-1 on Tuesday night.
Yanni Gourde added a goal and an assist, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Donato also scored and Jamie Oleksiak had two assists for the Kraken, who improved to 2-4-1, including a 1-1-0 mark in Seattle. Goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves.
Mike Hoffman scored for Montreal, which has lost six of its first seven games after reaching the Stanley Cup Finals last season. Goalie Jake Allen, filling in while Carey Price is in the NHL’s player assistance program, stopped 21 of 26 shots but was given little help as four of Seattle’s goals came on odd-man rushes.
Eberle got the Kraken off to a fast start, scoring 1:02 into the game. Oleksiak intercepted a Montreal pass and quickly made a pass up the center of the ice to Alex Wennberg to start a three-on-two break. Wennberg skated over the blue line and dropped a pass for Eberle on the left wing. Eberle cut across to the right faceoff circle and beat Allen with a shot into the upper right corner of the net.
Hoffman tied the score at 11:37 of the first, tucking a rebound past Grubauer while getting knocked to the ice.
The Kraken regained the lead on Tanev’s tally at 15:08 of the first. Jared McCann skated the puck down the right wing, pulled up at the top of the faceoff circle and flicked the puck behind himself to allow Oleksiak to continue the attack. Oleksiak nearly reached the end line before sending a backhanded pass to the front of the net, where Tanev redirected it just inside the near post.
Gourde made it 3-1 at 6:56 of the second, skating down the left wing on a two-on-one break, faking a pass and putting a backhander past Allen.
Tanev scored again on a breakaway at 8:53 of the middle period to increase Seattle’s lead to 4-1, taking a pass from Gourde and slipping the puck between the goalie’s pads.
Donato stole the puck in front of his own bench, skated in on a breakaway and scored on a backhander at 5:14 of the third.
–Field Level Media
