<p><p>DALLAS — An optimist midway through this one might have wrongly shrugged off a two-goal Kraken deficit as the culmination of a handful of mistakes in an otherwise well-played contest.</p></p><p><p>While it’s true a pair of ill-advised Will Borgen gambles and an inability to touch the puck on a prolonged delayed penalty led directly to three Monday night goals against them, the Kraken long ago forfeited the right to moral victories and margins for error. And to their credit, they didn’t play like a team seeking one, pouring it on the remainder of an eventual 4-3 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars like the desperate squad they now are.</p></p><p><p>Eeli Tolvanen scored the tying goal with 22 seconds to play in regulation after a wild scramble in front of Stars’ goalie Scott Wedgewood. After a prolonged officiating discussion and replay review, the goal counted and the teams headed to the overtime session.</p></p><p><p>Matty Beniers, who earlier had a goal and an assist, rattled one off the outside of the post in overtime. Then, not long after, Matt Duchene, who scored twice in this game, fed Thomas Harley for a tap-in goal at the lip of the crease with defender Ryker Evans standing right there but not doing enough to impede him.</p></p><p><p>The Kraken extended their points streak to four games, improving to 10-14-8 as they scramble to get back into the Western Conference playoff picture. The comeback was complicated by the Kraken losing Jared McCann and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare to lower body injuries during the game.</p></p><p><p>This rematch between second -round playoff teams from last spring in many ways resembled a majority of those postseason matchups at American Airlines Center – where the Stars notched three of their four victories to take the series in seven. In most of them, the Kraken fell behind early and spent the rest of the night chasing the tying goal.</p></p><p><p>In particular, Monday’s affair revived memories of Game 5, where the Kraken fell behind 3-0 by early in the middle period only to come storming back with two quick goals and then a power play in which they sought the equalizer that never came.</p></p><p><p>Down 3-1 in the second on Monday, the Kraken got one back from Beniers and then a power play late in which Brandon Tanev came mere inches from tying things – missing a wide-open net after Tyler Seguin disrupted him at the last possible second.</p></p><p><p>The Kraken entered the period trailing 2-0, but Tomas Tatar cut that deficit in half with his first goal for his new team only 32 seconds in. It came on a rebound off an initial Beniers shot and barely managed to trickle by Stars’ backup goalie Scott Wedgewood.</p></p>
↧
