SEATTLE — The Seattle Kraken handed the Vancouver Canucks their first loss under coach Rick Tocchet, 6-1 at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday.
Jared McCann had a goal and two assists, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice, and Adam Larsson, Vince DunnYanni Gourde and Jordan Eberle each had two assists for the Kraken (28-14-5), who are 2-0-1 in their past three games. Martin Jones made 19 saves.
“We played 60 minutes and made it hard right from the start,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We played a real direct game, did everything pretty quickly. We sustained that through, for sure through the first 40 minutes, and you know for the majority of the 60 minutes we didn’t give up very much because of that.”
Video: VAN@SEA: Bjorkstrand buries rebound for a goal in 1st
Conor Garland scored, and Spencer Martin made 29 saves for the Canucks (19-26-3), who were coming off a 5-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday in Tocchet’s debut.
“That’s a good team right there,” Tocchet said. “I thought the anxiety caught up with some of the guys, with the emotion of last week, but that was bad. That was bad. … Soft. You hate to call your team soft, but it was soft tonight. We didn’t participate in the wall battles, we didn’t get a rim out. We knew what they were going to do. This is a good team. … Old habits came.”
Bjorkstrand gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 7:57 of the first period while falling backward on a rebound in the slot.
“We wanted to be ready from the start,” Bjorkstrand said. “I thought we were. They’re coming off a back to back. We hadn’t played a game for I think three days (2-1 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday), so we should be fresh, and I thought we showed that we were.”
Alex Wennberg made it 2-0 at 9:46 with a power-play goal. He tapped in the puck near the left post after McCann’s shot deflected off the stick of Eberle.
McCann pushed it to 3-0 with another power-play goal at 5:55 of the second period, finishing off a cross-ice pass from Eberle in the left face-off circle.
Video: VAN@SEA: McCann caps nice play for a PPG in the 2nd
Eeli Tolvanen made it 4-0 at 7:50 with a one-timer from the high slot, and Bjorkstrand extended it to 5-0 at 16:15 after he was left all alone in the right circle.
Garland scored for Vancouver to make it 5-1 at 19:52.
“They moved their feet well. We got stuck chasing them all night,” the Canucks forward Curtis Lazar said. “That’s an area we know we need to work and improve.”
Ryan Donato scored at 2:36 of the third period when he lifted a backhand top shelf from the bottom of the right circle for the 6-1 final. He has four goals during a three-game goal streak.
“We haven’t liked the results, obviously (Seattle is 1-5-1 against Vancouver in its history),” Hakstol said. “I said before the game the results from last year mean nothing to this group, I maybe overstated that a little bit. They’re the closest team, but the most important thing is, this is game three this year, and we [hadn’t won]. We had one point up in Vancouver. These are a critical two points.”
Video: VAN@SEA: Donato pads lead in 3rd period
NOTES: Kraken forward Matty Beniers (undisclosed) left at 5:23 of the second period following a hit by the Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers, who was called for interference on the play. There was no update postgame. … Dunn has 36 points (nine goals, 27 assists) this season, an NHL career high.
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