Andre Burakovsky scored twice, and Philipp Grubauer celebrated his 31st birthday with 20 saves, leading the Seattle Kraken to a 4-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night.
This matchup between the Pacific Division’s top teams featured the NHL’s most recent expansion squads. It marked Seattle’s first win over Vegas since joining the league last season. The Kraken, now winless against only eight teams in the league, have won four in a row, including three straight against divisional opponents.
Ryan Donato and Jordan Eberle also scored for Seattle, which improved to 6-1-1 on the road.
Nic Roy and Phil Kessel scored for Vegas, while Adin Hill stopped 24 shots.
Burakovsky, who entered the game with two career goals against Vegas, scored both goals with precise shots on Hill, once in the first period to give the Kraken a two-goal lead and again in the second to put Seattle back on top after Vegas tied the game.
“It’s obviously a huge win,” said Burakovsky, who had his second consecutive multi-point game and third of the season. “They’re ahead of us. We want to chase them down. It was an important game. We lost last time against them, so we were hungry for the win today. It was good to get it done. It’s always nice to help the team get on the board.”
The Kraken dominated early, outshooting the Golden Knights 8-2 and taking a two-goal lead in the first period.
“They were quicker than us, won more races and one-on-one battles, executed better — they were just the better team,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “From start to finish, they outplayed us. We can analyze why, but we weren’t ready to play, which always falls on the coach. I have to get the guys ready to play.”
Donato started it off less than three minutes into the game with a nifty move around Hill to score, and Burakovsky made it 2-0 when he received a pass from Adam Larsson and fired a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
The Golden Knights cut Seattle’s lead in half when Roy was on the doorstep for a rebound and punched it in the net in his first game back after missing three games with a lower-body injury.
Playing in his 1,004th consecutive game, Kessel snapped in Shea Theodore’s touch pass near the bottom of the right circle moments later to tie the game at 2-2.
Burakovsky put the Kraken back on top when he grabbed a pass from Jamie Oleksiak, skated through the right circle, and snapped a wrist shot over Hill’s glove.
“His second goal of the game was a big one,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said about Burakovsky. “That was a nice play off the entry. He found a way inside, got into a better shooting spot, and found the short side. It was a good night for him.”
Eberle provided the highlight of the night after being initially stopped by Hill but then somehow reached back and flipped the puck up and in to extend Seattle’s lead back to two goals.
“We needed two points,” Hakstol said. “We’re not looking for a measuring stick. We’re playing to win games. These were important two points on the road.”
UP NEXT
- Kraken: Visit Anaheim on Sunday.
- Golden Knights: Host Vancouver on Saturday.
