SEATTLE – A special first in a high-tempo first period in the first game of the season couldn’t push the Ducks over the hump at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.

Beckett Sennecke scored his first career goal in his debut game, as the Ducks outshot Seattle 16-5 in the first period, but Anaheim never led. The Kraken scored first and caught up to the Ducks’ early breakneck pace in the final two periods of a 3-1 season-opening win.

It was the Kraken’s first-ever win in a season opener in their franchise’s five-year history.

“We had one of our best 30 minutes you could have,” Joel Quenneville said. “Everything we’re doing well, and they got the lead. So, that next goal was a big one in the third, and we kind of lost the puck possession game and lost zone time as well.”

“There was, for the most part, a lot of positives, but certainly, I just can’t think you play well enough and can live with the results. You got to look to change some things, and you get better for next game.”

Seattle cracked open the scoring with a wicked wrister from Vince Dunn just over two minutes in.

Just under two minutes later, magic struck for Anaheim, as Mason McTavish outworked Seattle low and found Beckett Sennecke at the far post for the Ducks top prospect’s first goal of his NHL career.

The 19-year-old winger made his NHL debut on Thursday with his parents and sister in attendance from Toronto.

It was a dominant first period from Anaheim on the shot clock and on the analytic charts. However, the momentum couldn’t push the Ducks over the top, and Anaheim couldn’t match that opening pace in either of the final two periods.

Mason Marchment found a soft spot in the Ducks backcheck for a go-ahead goal in the second period, and Jared McCann pounced on tired Ducks defenders for a 3-1 third-period lead.

“I thought we came out with really good pace,” Troy Terry said. “I thought we were controlling a lot of the game. Especially early in the season, those type of–I had one–but just kind of mental mistakes. Those are kind of what creep in early in the year, especially, and that can be the difference in these games, the first couple.”

Lukáš Dostál stopped 28 of 31 shots. Arizona State alum Joey Daccord made 35 saves for Seattle, and the Kraken blocked 26 shots in the game. Ducks blocked just seven.

Anaheim closes out its opening two-game road trip at San Jose on Saturday. The Ducks’ home opener is Tuesday against Pittsburgh.

Sennecke Scores on Second Shift

At Thursday’s morning skate, Beckett Sennecke said it was just a normal day for him. Even with his NHL debut in the cards that evening, Sennecke said it was no different than usual.

That turned out to be far from the case, as Sennecke scored not only the Ducks first goal of the season but the first of what will be many in the top prospect’s NHL career on just his second shift of the game.

“It’s pretty awesome to get that one to finally go in,” Sennecke said. “I’ve been thinking about that for a while now, so it was definitely nice to see.”Mason McTavish did a lot of the hard work, forechecking behind the net and holding off his defender long enough to backhand a pass to the far post, where Sennecke had smartly appeared from behind the net. The 19-year-old slammed it home to tie the game, 1-1, and open his career scoring ledger.

“I just looked up, and the puck was back door, and I just tapped it,” Sennecke said. “I don’t really remember how it kind of developed, but stick on the ice.”

McTavish set the table for the goal and cleaned off the plate, picking up the milestone puck out of the Seattle net.

Sennecke’s parents and sister made the trek to watch the NHL debut, and they were down by the glass, beaming with pride, as the Toronto native took his traditional solo warm-up laps in the pregame.

“That’s pretty special,” Sennecke said. “I mean, again, that’s something that you kind of dream of growing up and to have my family here just makes it kind of that much more special.”

When the Ducks’ opening roster was set, Sennecke was slated to open the campaign on the fourth line, and Joel Quenneville said the rookie would be used as an occasional “wild card” on power plays or extra-attacker situations.

However, with an injury to Ryan Strome, Mikael Granlund moved off the second-line wing and down to third-line center, which opened up a top-six spot for Sennecke.

“I think he had to puck a lot,” Quenneville said. “Strong on the puck areas and sustained some possession, and I still think there’s some good things that he’s going to bring to our team game and he can enhance and we can use him in a lot of different ways in different areas as a game progresses. So it was a good start for him.”

Quenneville and Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek have said Sennecke’s usage will be similar to the load management development plan Anaheim used in Leo Carlsson’s rookie year, and Quenneville said Thursday that “right now” the plan is for Sennecke to stay with Anaheim for the full season.

If Sennecke can continue to find the net, he won’t be going back down to junior hockey soon, or ever again.

Mason McTavish’s incredible energy and forecheck on Sennecke’s opening equalizer was a harbinger of a full-effort opening period, as the Ducks stormed out of the gate following Seattle’s season-starting goal.

Joel Quenneville preached all training camp about playing up tempo and working hard without much if any standing still during his quick practices, and that ethos was echoed in Anaheim’s start.

“We had momentum, we had possession, we had pace,” Quenneville said. “We had good sticks, we had traffic, we had shot point shots, D active in the rush game and in the zone time as well. Every line that was going too and giving us the same type of shift after shift.” 

Yes, the Ducks outshot the Kraken, 16-5, in the opening frame, but it goes further than that.

Per Natural Stat Trick, Anaheim pushed out to a massive advantage in shot attempts (33-11), scoring chances (14-2) and high-danger chances (8-0) and earned 92.2% of the expected goals.

Overwhelming numbers, but still, only a tie game after those 20 minutes.

Can’t Get Back Up to Speed

After the Ducks dominated the first period analytically, the second period evened out, and the third period leaned towards the home team, as Seattle closed out a home opening win.

Anaheim tried to turn its jets back on, but once the Kraken took the lead again, the Ducks began to push in the wrong ways.

“We had great sticks in the first. We didn’t have great sticks last half of the game,” Quenneville said. “I think that keeps the possession and gets it back quickly. So it’s just working together and a little bit more. I think we got chasing the game once we got behind, and we had to get it back in one second, but we’ll just be ready that we got to play 60 minutes and try to do what we did for the first 30.”

Beyond the defensive effort, the relentless waves of Ducks attacks evaporated, as the Kraken shot block brigade set up their barricades.

“We weren’t getting as many pucks and just people to the net,” Terry said of the late stages. “In the first two periods, it felt like we were getting a lot of shots through and we just had guys converging, and in the third, maybe we were just trying to do too much, or I don’t know. In the first period, I just felt like we were playing simple, we were winning battles, getting pucks to the net.”

Quenneville tried to push the buttons he had available as well, as the top lines went into a blender late in the third. Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish swapped their winger pairs, and Troy Terry dropped to the third line, as Quenneville looked for anything to stick.

“We lost a little bit of our momentum in the game, and I’m just trying to maybe somebody would have clicked you know, you never know,” Quenneville said. “So, some guys get a little bit more ice time that deserve it. Trying different things.”