One of Better Second Periods Since Olympics Break
After the Kraken and rookie goaltender Nikke Kokko surrendered the game’s first goal early in the second period, veteran forward Freddy Gaudreau evened the score just 54 seconds later. Gaudreau hit paydirt when he zipped a mid-range wrist shot past Calgary goaltender Devin Cooley after taking a pass from linemate Kaapo Kakko, then using Kakko as a decoy pass recipient to leave Cooley undecided on who was about to shoot. Gaudreau’s scoring touch is just another of the many small details of his game that the trade acquisition has displayed with the Kraken this season.
On top of Gaudreau’s steady play in all zones and most especially on the penalty kill, Gaudreau has moved down the lineup. He’s by far had the highest variety of linemates this year, per Kraken Hockey Network analyst Alison Lukan, who, naturally, logs such an item.
Because KHN colleagues Lukan, Piper Shaw and this reporter talk about this sort of thing on the regular, Lukan went home from a Friday conversation to answer the question of just how many line combinations Gaudreau has played on this year.
Here’s what Lukan delivered by Saturday afternoon: “Okay, so because I am a nerd [we love nerds, people], Freddy has been part of 25 different line combinations this season. But there’s only been 30 games this season when the same lineup as the previous game has been available to play the next game. Of those games, there are only 19 where the forward combinations have stayed intact. On the flip side, Freddy has also been part of the line that played the second-most minutes together this season, alongside Chandler Stephenson and Eeli Tolvanen.”
It’s paragraphs like this one above, plus Piper Shaw’s Saturday in-arena chat with Kokko, that lead me to love this job and love my colleagues.
Seattle kept the fire stoked during the rest of the middle period. After prompting Kokko to make 12 first-period saves in a scoreless first period, the Flames managed just four shots on goal in the second stanza. In the final seven minutes of the. Period, the Kraken scored twice. First on a graceful and unexpected spinning backhand pass by winger Jaden Schwartz, Chandler Stephenson whacked in a far-post back-door goal with D-man Vince Dunn deflecting the puck between Schwartz and Stephenson.
Then, with just five seconds left in the period, Matty Beniers had the puck on his stick blade standing on the sideboards about even with the faceoff dot. He embraced a shoot-first mentality with no time to pass. His deep-angle shot beat the Flames’ Cooley in about the only place it would have succeeded, past the goalie’s right shoulder, upper far corner. Someone slip that into the goals-of-the-year highlight reel,
“Chandler [Stephenson] was yelling on the bench, five seconds! Five seconds! Five seconds!” said Beniers. “So I knew I had a little bit more time than I might have thought when I first got the puck, [thus allowing time to take an extra second or two in preparing to shoot]. So it’s good ‘assist’ by Chandler.”