Marcus Johansson scored the tiebreaking goal at 16:52 of the third period and Philipp Grubauer made 35 saves as the Seattle Kraken defeated the visiting Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 Wednesday night.
Jared McCann also scored for Seattle, which won its second straight against an Eastern Conference power following a six-game losing streak. The Kraken snapped the skid with a 5-2 win over Washington on Sunday.
Brendan Smith scored the lone goal for Carolina, which lost its second in a row and dropped to 3-1-1 on its six-game trip that concludes Friday in Philadelphia. Goalie Frederik Andersen stopped 20 of 22 shots but the Hurricanes dropped out of a tie with Florida for the NHL’s best record.
On the winning goal, Johansson picked up a loose puck in the left-wing corner, skated around the back of the net and twirled just shy of the right faceoff dot, putting a wrist shot through a defenseman’s legs and beating Andersen just inside the near post.
The Hurricanes opened the scoring at 18:32 of the first period. A Seattle clearing attempt glanced off a skate along the side boards, but Carolina’s Tony DeAngelo was able to keep the puck in the offensive zone at the right point, spun and made a backhanded pass across the blue line to Smith. His slap shot beat a screened Grubauer into the upper left corner of the net.
The Kraken tied it on McCann’s power-play goal at 4:16 of the second. Yanni Gourde and Vince Dunn worked the puck around the top of the right faceoff circle before finding McCann open at the opposite point. He took a couple of strides before unleashing a slap shot that beat Andersen low inside the near post as Jaden Schwartz set up at the post to look for a tip or rebound.
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The Hurricanes were without defenseman Ethan Bear, who during his junior career helped lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to the Western Hockey League championship and a berth in the Memorial Cup in 2017. Bear tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and is in quarantine.
–Field Level Media