<p><p>EDMONTON, Alberta — Whether or not this really was the “must win” game Jordan Eberle described it as earlier this week, the Kraken sure came out Thursday night playing as if it was.</p></p><p><p>They went right at the Edmonton Oilers, scoring a pair of first-period goals and putting the home team’s franchise-record 11-game winning streak in serious jeopardy. Unfortunately for the Kraken, the middle portion of what became a hard-fought 4-2 loss at Rogers Place saw the Oilers demonstrate the offensive firepower that’s helped snag them a dozen victories in a row.</p></p><p><p>“We gave them too much,” Kraken forward Jared McCann, who’d scored one of his team’s opening goals, said of the team’s second-period giveaways. “We’ve just got to realize that sometimes you’ve got to play defense, especially against a team like that. It’s a learning experience.”</p></p><p><p>A pair of goals by unheralded Warren Foegele — who somehow has five in 10 lifetime games against the Kraken — and another by Leon Draisaitl in the opening seven-plus minutes of that middle period erased the early advantage before the visitors knew what hit them. That overcame first-period Kraken goals by Eeli Tolvanen and McCann and had netminder Joey Daccord diving all over his crease trying to keep more pucks out.</p></p><p><p>“I just feel like we need to answer the bell a little bit better,” McCann said. “Even when they do score, we’ve got to have a better push.”</p></p><p><p>The Kraken finally settled down and almost tied it near the period’s end when Daccord hit Alex Wennberg with a long stretch pass, and Wennberg beat Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner with a wrist shot. But the Oilers successfully challenged that Wennberg had crossed Edmonton’s blue line ahead of the puck, and the goal was waved off.</p></p><p><p>The Kraken pressed for the tying marker in the third, but Yanni Gourde took a five-minute major for charging with 3:34 to go, and Zach Hyman scored on the ensuing power play to pretty much end it. Moments earlier, Connor McDavid had clearly high-sticked Gourde on a play that went uncalled, something the Kraken were visibly irked about.</p></p><p><p>Neither team was happy with the officiating in this one — a physical affair in which the Kraken benefitted from five power-play chances yet failed to score.</p></p><p><p>Edmonton entered with the NHL’s fifth best goals-per-game mark at 3.50 and has spent the past month building that up after a rough start. They’ve scored 48 goals in the dozen wins and cut down significantly on those allowed, giving up two or fewer in 10 consecutive outings.</p></p><p><p>Likewise, the byproduct winning streak has sent Edmonton rocketing up the Pacific Division standings to a 25-15-1 mark that’s five points better than the Kraken, with the Oilers holding four games in hand.</p></p><p><p>“When you get into these trips, the start of them is so important,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol, whose 19-17-9 squad needs to prevent this three-game losing streak from getting further out of hand. “Obviously, 3-3 [on the road trip] is not what we wanted. You get one of these last games — either in New York or tonight — and you walk away feeling like it’s a really successful, good road trip. We weren’t able to do that, and that’s disappointing.”</p></p><p><p>For an undermanned Kraken side, which did get the injured Andre Burakovsky back while Matty Beniers and Vince Dunn remained sidelined, this newest losing stretch indeed underscored the importance of Thursday’s game outlined by Eberle. The Kraken had just used a nine-game win streak of their own to vault back into playoff contention, having already endured a losing streak of eight games.</p></p><p><p>This seemingly interminable six-game trip now done, they face the Toronto Maple Leafs — a team they’ve gone just 1-3-1 lifetime against, including an overtime loss in late November.</p></p><p><p>“We’ve got to get home and we don’t have a lot of time, but we’ve got to try to get some bodies healed up and feeling better,” Hakstol said, adding: “You know, there’s not a lot of breathing room in this schedule or in this league.”</p></p><p><p>This game started out well enough, with Oliver Bjorkstrand hitting Tolvanen with a breakaway pass midway through the first and watching him beat Skinner top shelf. Less than four minutes later, Eberle set up McCann in close for his team-leading 18th goal of the season.</p></p><p><p>“I think it’s important that we started on time and we did a really good job with that,” Tolvanen said. “But we have to play the whole 60 minutes to win these games.”</p></p><p><p>Brandon Tanev had a golden chance to make it a three-goal lead, but lost the puck on a breakaway when he tried to make a deke move.</p></p><p><p>Then, after the first intermission, it all came undone in a hurry.</p></p><p><p>“I felt like we just watched the first eight minutes of the second period,” Tolvanen said. “They scored big goals. And we knew that if we were going to give them time, they’re going to score goals. And that’s what happened.”</p></p><p><p>Foegele scored just 37 seconds into the period off a cross-ice Draisaitl pass after a Kraken turnover. Draisaitl then banked one in off Daccord on an Oilers power play before Foegele was sprung for a clear-cut breakaway and beat Daccord to put Edmonton ahead for good.</p></p><p><p>Leaving the Kraken to again pick up the pieces before this losing streak snowballs.</p></p><p><p>“I mean, it’s tough to look at the positives right now,” McCann said. “But we did start the road trip off pretty good. Obviously, we lost a couple of guys and a bunch of guys are sick right now. I’m not making excuses. But we’ve got to go home, get some rest and try to come out better the next day.”</p></p>
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