Kraken score six, cruise past Flames in season opener
Dunn, McCann each has three points, Daccord makes 24 saves for Seattle
By Laurence Heinen
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
CALGARY -- Vince Dunn had a goal and two assists, and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Calgary Flames 6-1 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.
It was the season opener for each team, and the final opener at the Saddledome. The Flames are moving into a new arena, Scotia Place, next season.
“I’ve never really been at the Saddledome when it’s been that loud, to be honest, right from the start,” Dunn said. “That was pretty cool to see just the energy of the crowd and obviously the commitment by everyone. It’s their last year in the building, so they’re obviously trying to support the team and whatnot, so I thought that was really huge to get them out of it and it’s good to start on the road like that for sure.”
Jared McCann had three assists, and Matty Beniers and Kaapo Kakko each had a goal and an assist for the Kraken. Jordan Eberle, Frederick Gaudreau and Chandler Stephenson also scored, and Joey Daccord made 24 saves.
“It was a great win,” Beniers said. “A lot of fun to play in there. It was kind of rocking, so it's always fun to play in a packed building that's loud and passionate. Fun for us, but I thought we played a good 60 minutes, so I think we were all happy with that.”
Dustin Wolf made 26 saves, and Ryan Strome scored for the Flames.
“Obviously super disappointing,” Strome said. “I thought we had a decent first few minutes of the game. We had a good start and then kind of just unraveled. We’re a team that can't really make any mistakes. We've got to play hard. We've got to play simple and obviously the end result of getting away from that was what you saw tonight. So, I mean, that one stings.”
Eberle gave Seattle a 1-0 lead at 9:10 of the first period with a power-play goal. McCann’s shot from the top of the right circle hit Eberle in front of the net, and the puck dropped to the feet of the veteran winger for a tap-in goal.
“I don’t see a necessity to really make a bunch of plays off the face-off of a power play,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “Get pucks to the net and typically you can outnumber them at the net and that’s what happened.”
Dunn scored to put the Kraken up 2-0 just 32 seconds later at 9:42 when his slap shot from the point through traffic beat Wolf inside the right post.
“It’s good to see us start that way,” Dunn said. “It’s good to get the confidence rolling. It’s a quick turnaround after preseason, but by the looks of it, the legs feel good by everyone, and I think everyone really got into that game. It was a pretty well-rounded team effort there, so that’s huge.”
Gaudreau extended Seattle’s lead to 3-0 at 19:30 when he took a cross-ice feed from Kakko and snapped a shot to the top corner over Wolf’s glove.
The Kraken scored goals 51 seconds apart early in the third period.
Stephenson tucked a backhand shot through Wolf’s pads at 3:13 before Beniers took a drop pass from McCann and slapped a shot past the Calgary goalie at 4:04 to put Seattle up 5-0.
“They had their push and obviously we didn’t do enough of what is our identity to get out of it, so it’s on us,” Flames defenseman Zach Whitecloud said. “It’s embarrassing.”
Strome scored on a wrist shot from the top of the left circle at 16:35 to make it 5-1.
Kakko then chipped a rebound one-handed past Wolf 26 seconds later at 17:01 for the 6-1 final.
“It's always nice to win one game or the first game,” Eberle said. “It's a long season. This is not a sprint, it's a marathon. You have to temper. There's always video and there's always things you can improve on. At the end of the day for us to be successful this season, we need to get better over the entire year and we're going to do that.”
