Kraken lose sixth straight in 2-1 loss to Devils

SEATTLE - The Seattle Kraken saw their losing streak extended to six straight games as goaltender Akira Schmid stopped 37 of 38 shots in a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

Tye Kartye was the only scorer for the Kraken on the night despite a 38-17 margin in shots on net. The Kraken have failed to lead in any of their six losses as they've fallen to 13th out of 16 teams in the Western Conference in points percentage.

"I didn't realize that was the stat but yeah, it's pretty frustrating," Kartye said. "We're pretty frustrated, but hopefully we can we can work through it here and come out on the other side of better team."

Rookie defenseman Ryker Evans made his debut for the Kraken after being called up from AHL Coachella Valley on Tuesday. However, it was Devils rookie Šimon Nemec that delivered that stole the headlines with the game-winning goal for New Jersey.

Ondrej Palat scored off a feed from John Marino in the first period to give the Devils the lead and Nemec scored the go-ahead goal off a great pass from Jesper Bratt in the second period for his first career NHL goal in just his third game played.

The Kraken made a significant push for the tying goal in the final period.

Jared McCann had a pair of prime chances stopped by Schmid's shoulder. Matty Beniers just fanned on a pass from Jordan Eberle and Eberle had a backhand chance on an open net that slid harmlessly through the New Jersey crease.

A short-handed 2-on-1 chance for McCann and Yanni Gourde with three minutes left resulted in McCann's shot clanging off the crossbar and out of play. Seattle pulled Grubauer with 1:48 left to play and got a few more shots on the net in the closing seconds that resulted in a mosh pit in the Devils' crease. But the puck stayed out and the Kraken took another loss. 

"We played our tails off tonight," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "I mean, it's a hard outcome, right? Played against a good hockey team. We played really hard. We made a couple of mistakes. That's the nature of the beast. Right now we're not getting the benefit of some of the hard work. You can't just show up and work hard. You got to show up and execute. And there was a lot of positive execution on our part tonight."

The effort and loss to the Devils isn't the problem for the Kraken. It was a good effort and well-played game that didn't go their way in the end. The losses to the Chicago Blackhawks, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens on the last roadtrip were a far bigger concern. The Kraken looked flat and uncompetitive for too long in many of those losses. Leading scorer called their first period effort in Montreal "embarrassing."

That wasn't the case on Thursday night.

"I feel like there's a lot of good things in the game," said Alex Wennberg, who delivered the assist on Kartye's goal. "Obviously it feels like lately we're finding ways to lose the game. I mean, obviously, we have the opportunity. I feel like we had a couple of posts and we could have turned this game around. We got to change something. I mean, obviously, we can't let this just keep going. It's got to be a different mindset to kind of turn this thing around."

The Kraken controlled play for much of the opening period and still saw the Devils take the lead into the first intermission. Some pinpoint passing in the offensive zone from Nico Hischier to Marino to Palat beat Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer for a 1-0 New Jersey lead.

In his first game back from a seven-week absence for an undisclosed upper body injury, André Burakovsky helped the Kraken create their first goal of the night. Burakovsky pressured Marino behind the Devils net into a turnover. Wennberg picked up the loose puck and delivered a perfect in front of the net to Kartye as he snapped a shot cleanly by Schmid to tie the game at 1-1.

Shortly after Kartye's goal tied the game at 1-1, the Devils jumped back in front. Bratt found space with the puck behind Seattle's net and delivered a perfect pass to a drivingNemec as he snapped a shot by Grubauer for his first career NHL goal.

Nemec was the No. 2 overall pick in last year's NHL Draft and was a player thought to be a high consideration for the Kraken with the 4th pick if he was available. Instead, the Devils took Nemec and the Kraken selected Shane Wright with the No. 4 selection. It was the third game of his career since being called up last week by New Jersey.

Grubauer finished with 15 saves on just 17 shots faced for Seattle.

Burakovsky didn't make it out of the second period without an injury scare. He left the ice with 3:17 left in the period and immediately retreated to the Kraken locker room. He took a hit from Devils defenseman Kevin Bahl on his prior shift, but seemed fine at the time. It was during his next shift when he bent over at the waist near the Seattle bench before leaving the ice. 

Burakovsky returned for two shifts in the third period but did not play in the final 15 minutes of action.

"He was not available in the third period," Hakstol said. "So we'll have to evaluate that as we as we go into tomorrow morning. He had one or two shifts early in the period and he was not available for the rest of the period.

"He was moving very well. And that element that he adds for us is a real important one. It's something that jumps off the map and it was good to have him back in the lineup.It was good to have him back in the lineup. Now we'll have to re-evaluate and see where we are going forward."

Hakstol was pleased with the performance of Evans in his first game as well. Evans saw nearly 18 minutes of ice time playing alongside veteran Brian Doumoulin in his first game. He had two shots on net, which included a nifty play behding the New Jersey net that led to a backhack chance in tight in the third period.

"Ryker was good tonight," Hakstol said. "He played with a real good veteran in Brian Doumoulin. The two of them communicated well and their play was good. I was really happy with Ryker's game tonight. You always look for comfort and confidence and I thought he displayed that right away from the start of the hockey game and all the way through."