<p><p>Those buying beers or battling traffic missed nearly all the scoring action in a 3-1 Dallas Stars victory over the Kraken on Monday night at Climate Pledge Arena. There were three goals in the first 3:19, and then none at all until a Stars empty netter with 1:07 left in the game.</p></p><p><p>On the Kraken’s second shift, winger Kaapo Kakko passed the puck off to linemate Jaden Schwartz for safekeeping and cut straight up the middle to the net. Kakko scored his 14th of the season 1:02 into the game, setting a new career high with 41 points.</p></p><p><p>Kakko was back with Schwartz and Matty Beniers to start the game, following a brief separation. That trio has played together more than any other this season.</p></p><p><p>“It was nice to be back with Schwartzy again. I mean, first shift, we scored a goal. Right away we knew what to do out there,” Kakko said. “The whole team got a lot of chances, and our line (as well). So that’s a good thing, but at some point, you’ve gotta put it in.”</p></p><p><p>Twenty-seven (10 goals, 17 assists) of Kakko’s 41 points came following a trade to Seattle from the New York Rangers on Dec. 18. He didn’t feel like celebrating the milestone on Monday – “Not after a game where you lose” – but maybe during the offseason, which is only seven games away on April 16.</p></p><p><p>At the other end of the ice, Seattle’s Jared McCann blocked a shot and fell to the ice in pain. The puck bounced straight back to the shooter, Matt Dumba, who tapped it to Mason Marchment for another chance. Matt Duchene tipped it in.</p></p><p><p>Then Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn tried to tie up Wyatt Johnston’s stick as Johnson slid around him, but the Stars forward still got a shot off and scored his second in three days against the Kraken, 45 seconds after Duchene’s goal.</p></p><p><p>For a long time, that was it. Seattle’s Jani Nyman, appearing in his 10th NHL game, had a point-blank chance in tight that wouldn’t go. Beniers then barely hit the side of the net.</p></p><p><p>“That’s how the offense has got to come against a tough-defending team like Dallas,” coach Dan Bylsma said.</p></p><p><p>“We had to fight and scratch and claw for some good opportunities, and they swarm defense. You have to release, and they cut us off a few times. They made it tough for us.”</p></p><p><p>Schwartz came close on multiple occasions. Shane Wright was often in the right place with the right idea. The Stars took back-to-back minor penalties at the end of the second period with 10 seconds of overlap, but even with that advantage, the Kraken couldn’t convince the score to budge.</p></p><p><p>Both teams went 0-3 on the power play. Mikael Granlund put in Dallas’ empty netter and goaltender Casey DeSmith made 35 saves.</p></p><p><p>Philipp Grubauer made his first start in nearly two weeks for the Kraken. He allowed Dallas’ goals on the second and third shots he faced, then made 27 more saves, several of them tricky.</p></p><p><p>“They’re a really big and fast team. They’re sniffing for breakaways,” Grubauer said. “They had a couple 50-50 chances in their zone. Their forwards just take off and they’re gone.</p></p><p><p>“You’ve got to always be aware, because they have a pretty deep lineup so everybody can score.”</p></p><p><p>Dallas took both games during a two-game trip to Seattle. In Saturday’s 5-1 decision, winger Eeli Tolvanen’s goal 1:27 into the game was similarly the Kraken’s first and only.</p></p><p><p>During that last outing at Climate Pledge Arena, the Stars clinched their own 2025 playoff spot. The Kraken (31-38-6) had been eliminated from contention earlier in the day. A first-round Stars series against the Colorado Avalanche, in which Dallas has home-ice advantage as the higher seed, looks highly likely.</p></p><p><p>The Kraken, meanwhile, will head off on a five-game road swing starting in Vancouver on Wednesday. They’ll host two more games at Climate Pledge Arena before their season ends.</p></p>
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