The preview called the net the whole story for New York, and it was, just not with the name it expected. Dylan Garand was projected to start after his 32 saves against St. Louis. The postgame reporting has Joonas Korpisalo in goal instead, in his first game since coming off injured reserve Friday after missing the first 17 with a lower-body injury from camp. He took a 4-goal cushion into the 3rd, gave back 3 and still got the win.
The win makes 3 straight for the Rangers since they snapped their 4-game skid. That run started against the Blues, continued with the comeback against Philadelphia and now includes a road win after a long flight. Perreault and Kartye showed up on the scoresheet again. Mike Sullivan's reworked middle six was one of the preview's main questions, and the 2nd line answered it in the 1st period.
Look at the line score and you see 2 different games. Seattle got nothing for 40 minutes, then put 3 past Korpisalo in the 3rd. The Kraken had to get scoring from somewhere without Jared McCann, and Berkly Catton came in on a 7-game point streak. The box score we pulled doesn't break out the 3rd-period goals, so it's unclear who drove the comeback. What it does show is a team that played 1 period of hockey. Against a club winning 1-goal games on defense and goaltending, a 4-0 hole is too deep to climb out of.
For the Kraken, the bigger problem was the start. The preview said Seattle needed to win low-scoring games like the 2-1 overtime win over Calgary, with Brandon Montour, Vince Dunn and Joey Daccord carrying a thin lineup. New York scored 3 in the 1st, and that ended any chance of a low-scoring game. Seattle falls to 9-6-1 and has gone 2-3 in its last 5, alternating wins and losses.
The injury list got longer on game day. Goalie Nikke Kokko went on IR the afternoon of the game, joining McCann, Ryan Lindgren, Curtis Douglas, Jacob Melanson and Jake O'Brien. The goalie depth both teams worried about before puck drop is still the story. New York leaves Seattle with Korpisalo back in game shape and a 3-game win streak, and the Kraken leave knowing their 3rd period would have won most games if the 1st had been anywhere close.
