Jets 3, Kraken 2, OT at Climate Pledge Arena
Notable: The Kraken forced overtime, but fell to old friend Brandon Tanev and the visiting Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night.
Twenty-year-old Jani Nyman scored his second power-play goal in three NHL games. A second-round pick in 2022, Nyman is enjoying his first Kraken recall during a standout North American debut season.
His second goal strongly resembled the first. Both times, Jordan Eberle waited behind the net to tee up Nyman. Nyman again dipped to one knee to send a blistering shot past the glove of Connor Hellebuyck.
The plan was to give Jets workhorse Hellebuyck the night off. Hellebuyck is a favorite for a second straight Vezina Trophy, awarded to the league’s best goaltender. He sports an NHL-best 1.97 goals-against average and .927 save percentage and is tied for most appearances (52) with Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Eric Comrie got the start in net but was slow to rise after a teammate crashed into him. Comrie skated off less than five minutes into the game but returned for the very end of the period and quickly gave up the Kraken’s second goal to Mikey Eyssimont. Eyssimont has two goals in the six games since Seattle picked him up at the trade deadline in the swap that sent Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand to the Lightning.
Comrie finished with 14 saves on 15 shots.
Winnipeg got one back 17 seconds before the first intermission, then Jets winger Kyle Connor took it upon himself to tie the game at 2. He sped up along the boards, anticipating a Kraken shot blocked on the way through that would spit out to him. He’d seemingly already beaten Seattle defenseman Ryker Evans and goaltender Joey Daccord (23 saves) before the sequence even began.
Evans was scratched from the Kraken’s last outing, but returned to the lineup against Winnipeg. He had an assist and a team-high four hits, but was on the ice for two goals against.
Nearly two minutes into overtime, Dylan Samberg ended the game on a setup from Cole Perfetti.
All three contests this season between the league-best Jets and basement-dwelling Kraken were decided by one goal. Both games at Climate Pledge Arena went to overtime. Winnipeg won all three.
Quotable: “Clearly, (we) got a good picture of what he can do and what he can be. It’s not just the shot on the on the power play that we’ve seen a couple of times. He had some good time in the offensive zone with the puck, getting over, making plays…really good to see from him in another game.” -Kraken coach Dan Bylsma on Nyman
Player of the game: Perfetti (one goal, one assist)
Goal of the game: If style points were awarded, Connor’s would be the best of the night. His ambitious moves tied the game at 2.
On tap: Seattle plays its next four on the road, starting Tuesday at Chicago.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
