CHICAGO — The Seattle Kraken became the first team in NHL history to sweep a road trip of at least seven games when they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 8-5 at the United Center on Saturday.
The Kraken (26-12-4), who have also won eighth straight overall, scored six goals on their first seven shots in the first period, including five in a span of 3:41.
“The two points is what matters,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s a great accomplishment for the players to be able to do that. It shows the consistency and the work that they’ve put in from the start of this road trip. For me, it’s more about the players accomplishing consistency of playing together as they moved through the entire road trip.”
Video: SEA@CHI: McCann scores three from the same spot
Jared McCann had his first NHL hat trick, Matty Beniers and Oliver Bjorkstrand each had a goal and an assist, and Martin Jones made 22 saves for his seventh straight win for Seattle.
“It’s been nice,” McCann said. “Being able to score in a game like this is huge. Obviously, we made some history tonight, so it was nice. It’s huge. We didn’t have the best year last year, especially on the road. We were looking forward to the season. We added some new faces and made our team a lot deeper.”
Taylor Raddysh had a goal and two assists, and Seth Jones had three assists for the Blackhawks (11-26-4), who had won three straight. Petr Mrazek allowed four goals on five shots before being replaced at 12:08 of the first period Alex Stalockwho made 21 saves.
“It’s not complicated, it’s just not good enough,” Chicago captain Jonathan Toews said. “The effort’s not there and the preparation’s clearly not there, so it’s not anyone in particular. It’s across the board, so it’s nothing specific, nothing special, but I think we all recognize that it was far from the level that we’ve played. these last three games.
“We’ve got to show a little bit more experience, a little bit more character in the way that we’re taking steps forward as a team and maturing as a team, and when we start getting momentum and things start clicking because we’re working and we’re earning the bounces, we can’t just have an off night where it’s just like we’re not feeling it and we’re kind of mailing it in like that. We’ve got to be better than that. “
Video: SEA@CHI: Kraken erupts for 6 goals in 1st period
Daniel Sprong gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 2:50 of the first period, scoring after a backhand-to-forehand deke Morgan Geekie sent him in with a pass from center ice.
Toews tied it 1-1 at 4:40. Jones worked the puck deep into the zone before passing out to Toews, whose shot from the left point deflected off the stick of a Kraken defenseman. Jamie Oleksiak.
Beniers put Seattle back ahead 2-1 at 9:30 with a wrist shot from the high slot. It was his sixth goal in seven games.
McCann made it 3-1 at 10:46 when he skated down the right side and beat Mrazek with a wrist shot.
Andrey Burakovsky extended the lead to 4-1 at 12:08, receiving a backhand pass in front from Beniers along the goal line.
Eeli Tolvanen pushed it to 5-1 at 12:45, and McCann made it 6-1 at 13:11.
Kraken defender Adam Larsson was on the ice for all six first-period goals and was plus-7 for the game.
“Honestly, I didn’t feel like I was involved in the first six of them,” Larsson said. “Whatever we’re doing out there seems to work. Obviously, we’ve had a lot of fun lately.”
Video: SEA@CHI: Domi unloads one-timer from circle for PPG
Isaac Phillips scored his first NHL goal at 10:45 of the second period to bring Chicago within 6-2.
Max Domi‘s power-play goal 51 seconds into the third period made it 6-3.
McCann, who was playing in his 466th game, completed his first NHL hat trick at 1:54 to make it a 7-3 lead. Bjorkstrand then made it 8-3 at 2:37.
Raddysh scored a power-play goal at 16:50 to cut it to 8-4 before Patrick Kane scored at 19:45 for the 8-5 final.
“Yeah, it was just collective,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “Nobody was prepared to play today, physically and mentally. You know, I think probably scoring right after they scored to make it 1-1, it just felt like [we thought], ‘Oh, we were going to be OK,’ the way we were playing. And we were definitely not playing well. It may have been the worst thing that happened to us, instead of not scoring there and maybe having to work back into the game. I think we just thought it was going to happen tonight.”
NOTES: Seattle scored the 15th fastest five goals in NHL history. The Pittsburgh Penguins scored five times in 2:07 on Nov. 22, 1972, in a 10-4 win against the St. Louis Blues. … Jones, who had a shutout in each of his past two games, had his streak end at 139:19. …Forward Jordan Eberle played his 900th NHL game. … Seattle forward Jaden Schwartz was a late scratch with an undisclosed injury. … Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (three goals, seven assists). … Oleksiak’s assist was his 100th NHL point. … Kane had a game-high seven shots in 18:23 after missing three games with a lower-body injury.
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