Sometimes, puck luck just isn’t on your side.
It wasn’t for the Seattle Kraken as they wrapped up a five-game trip Thursday at Western Conference-leading Winnipeg.
The Kraken played perhaps one of their best games of the season, only to see an odd bounce in the final minute help the Jets to a 2-1 victory.
Seattle, which went 2-3-0 on its trip, will hope for smoother sailing when it plays the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, the first of nine home games over the Kraken’s next 10 overall as they try to make up ground in the wild-card playoff race.
The Kraken stayed with Winnipeg for 59-plus minutes until defenseman Adam Larsson’s clearance attempt hit a stanchion along the glass on the left wing boards, with the puck caroming to the Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers. He fed Dylan DeMelo for a shot that beat screened Seattle goaltender Joey Daccord for the decisive score with 27 seconds remaining.
“It sucks. It’s a tough pill to swallow,” said center Matty Beniers, who scored midway through the first period for the Kraken’s lone goal and his fifth in the past 10 games. “But you’ve got to forget about it and move on. You’ve got to build off the way you were playing.”
Daccord made 34 saves for the Kraken, who have lost six of their past eight games to drop eight points back in the conference’s wild-card chase entering Saturday.
“(We) play a game like that against a good team — in the battle, in the fight,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “We played a great first period and disappointing how it ended there in the last 30 seconds. … They got a bounce, yes. You make your own luck.”
The Kings, who are in third place in the Pacific Division, are wrapping up a five-game trip in which they are 2-2-0 thus far. They snapped a two-game skid with a 5-1 victory at Vancouver on Thursday as Alex Turcotte had two goals and an assist in the game’s opening 10 minutes.
It was the biggest offensive night for Turcotte in his NHL career, in which he’s played only 69 games because of injuries since being the No. 5 overall pick in the 2019 draft.
“It’s been everything I’ve dreamed of and to go through the adversity earlier in my career, this definitely feels good,” Turcotte said. “But I want to keep pushing. I’m not satisfied. I want to keep going and see where I can go from here.”
Turcotte has 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in 37 games this season. He had one goal and three assists in 32 prior NHL games.
“He’s been really good for us. I guess you’d call it a bit of a surprise, I think even for us,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “We didn’t expect to see him playing as much as he is and playing as well as he is. The thing I like about him is he’s very responsible, plays both ways, good through the neutral zone, D zone blocks shots, so it’s really a credit to him. He’s taken a little bit longer than some of his peers, but he’s got it going now.”
The Kings have won six of their past eight games, the lone blemishes a 2-1 defeat at Calgary on Saturday and a 1-0 loss at Edmonton on Monday.
One key for the Kings has been the play of goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who is 9-1-2 since Dec. 7.
“I just really love the group of guys. We all get along really well. It’s a special group and you can see that when we play,” Kuemper said. “It’s just everybody all-in to the team game.”
–Field Level Media
