Jared McCann scores twice as Kraken beat Blue Jackets 7-4 for franchise record 9th straight win

Jared McCann scored a pair of goals to snap a nine-game goalless streak and the Seattle Kraken set a new franchise record with a ninth straight victory in a 7-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.

Seattle trailed on three separate occasions in the game, but managed to answer every Columbus jab to set a new record winning streak. The Kraken won eight straight games last January, which included an NHL record seven-game winning streak on the same road trip. It also extended their franchise-record point streak to 13 straight games.

"We’re playing well. We’re playing great," McCann said. "And we’re playing good against good teams too, which is good. You like to see that. But we need to realize when we play those young teams that are going to run-and-gun, we’ve got to skate more. We’ve got to check a little bit harder."

McCann (two goals, assist) and Yanni Gourde (assist) each reached the 300-point milestone for their careers with Jordan Eberle, Tye Kartye, Brian Doumoulin and Eeli Tolvanen also scoring goals for Seattle in the victory.

"We just stuck with it," McCann said. "We knew we were getting our chances, we just had to bury the puck."

However, the Kraken also had André Burakovsky and Matty Beniers exit the game with injuries. Burakovsky left midway through the first period with a lower-body injury while Beniers did not return for the start of the third period.

The winning streak has vaulted the Kraken from the absolute fringes of playoff discussion right onto the back end of playoff positioning. 

"We weren’t at our best. We weren’t sharp, especially to start the hockey game," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "We showed some really good resiliency to dig out of a hole, build a lead. The bench got a little bit short, we simplified our game and were able to build that lead and hold it."

The Blue Jackets pressured Seattle hard right off the opening face-off and quickly jumped out in front. A blue line shot from Ivan Provorov ticked off the heel of Tolvanen and fooled Joey Daccord through traffic to find the back of the net for a 1-0 Columbus lead just 1:41 into the game.

Eventually, the Kraken managed to find their footing to settle down the action and found an equalizer. 

Eberle caught a terrific aerial stretch pass from Adam Larsson at the Columbus blue line and snapped a shot by Daniil Tarasov to tie the game at 1-1.

Provorov restored the Blue Jackets lead just over 30 seconds later as another shot from distance redirected off the knee of Doumoulin and by Joey Daccord for his second goal of the period.

McCann then snapped his goalless drought as Bjorkstrand set McCann up with a clean look between the circles for his 15th goal of the season to bring the score level again at 2-2.

Four minutes into the second period, the Kraken were simultaneously called for a Will Borgen holding penalty and too many men on the ice to put them into a 5-on-3 disadvantage. Kirill Marchenko hammered a slap shot that rode up Daccord’s stick and through him into the net for a 3-2 Columbus advantage.

Daccord’s insane stretch of play cooled off with Columbus able to find four goals on the night. However, it still included some fantastic saves to rob Johnny Gaudreau and Cole Sillinger to help Seattle extend their winning streak. Daccord made 30 saves on 34 shots for an .882 save percentage. It’s only his second start since the start of December that Daccord posted a sub-.900 save percentage in a game.

The Kraken tied the game yet again as a Vince Dunn point shot off a face-off win as tipped perfectly by Tarasov to make it a 3-3 game midway through the second period.

The turning point of the game came shortly after. Sillinger delivered a hit to Beniers in front of the Kraken bench that provoked the ire of Dunn as he quickly dropped his gloves and jumped the Columbus center. Both players were sent off for fighting majors, but Seattle also got a power play chance as Sillinger was called for a boarding penalty for his hit on Beniers.

The Kraken took advantage of the power play chance with Bjorkstrand snapping a shot from atop the right circle by Tarasov for a 4-3 lead. 

"It’s good in games where we’re not playing that well that we find a way to turn the switch and start playing better hockey, so I thought that’s what we did tonight," Bjorkstrand said.

Beniers finished the second period, but did not return for the final frame as Seattle was down to just 10 forwards for the final 20 minutes.

"It’s never fun seeing guys leave the ice," Bjorkstrand said.

But even short-handed, the Kraken managed to forge through for a victory. A transition rush chance led to McCann ripping his second goal of the night and 16th of the season by Tarasov for some breathing room with a 5-3 lead. Doumoulin further extended the advantage with a toe-drag and snap shot that picked the top right corner of the net for a 6-3 advantage.

Emil Bemstrom clawed one back for the Blue Jackets with 7:31 left to play, but Tolvanen added an empty net goal to put the game away for Seattle with just over a minute remaining.

McCann and Bjorkstrand – a former Blue Jacket – each had three-point nights for the Kraken.

Notes:

A scheduling change has been made for the Kraken’s next game Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Due to the Pittsburgh Steelers-Buffalo Bills playoff game being moved from Sunday to Monday due to winter storms in the northeast, the Kraken-Penguins game will now be a 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) start time. The game had previously been scheduled for 6 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT).