ANAHEIM — On their final legends night of the season, the Ducks trotted out former captain Ryan Getzlaf to a rousing ovation but the evening ultimately belonged to the NHL’s least storied franchise, the Seattle Kraken, as the third-year organization bested its hosts, 3-1, on Friday night at Honda Center.
The Kraken beat the Ducks in all four meetings this season, the last three coming since March 25.
Leo Carlsson scored the Ducks’ lone goal with no assist but plenty of bravado. Lukáš Dostál turned away 24 shots. Radko Gudas (upper-body injury) returned to action and in characteristic fashion as he delivered a booming hip check on Brandon Tanev in the second period. The Ducks were once again without Pavel Mintyukov and Max Jones, while Mason McTavish (lower-body injury) missed his first game since sustaining an injury in Calgary on Tuesday.
Seattle rookie Shane Wright doubled his career point total with two goals and an assist. Matty Beniers also scored a goal for Seattle and Oliver Bjorkstrand chipped in a pair of assists. Philipp Grubauer had 14 saves as the Ducks compiled just six shots in the final two-thirds of the match.
“From where I stood on the bench, it was Leo Carlsson and then a huge gap to the rest of the Anaheim Ducks tonight, huge,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “We didn’t do much, we didn’t generate much. He was the one guy who tried to make something happen [on] every play.”
Even down two scores with little choice but to open up their game, the Ducks couldn’t muster a possession or shot advantage, much less a goal in the third period.
In the second, a competitive opening 20 minutes gave way to tilted ice as Seattle turned in a domineering segment salvaged only by the late individual effort of Carlsson. Natural Stat Trick had both scoring chances and expected goals above 83% for Seattle, which earned 100% of the high-danger chances in the second period.
“In the second period, they played a good team game and we didn’t respond to it,” Cronin said. “We continued to turn pucks over, we didn’t defend well and we were lucky that it was only [3-1] after two.”
Carlsson found a puck that had been batted away from Troy Terry floating loose near the offensive blue line. The 19-year-old Swede, playing in his 50th NHL game, made a silky between-the-legs pass to himself to beat Wright before he skated into the inner portion of the right faceoff circle and rifled a dazzling wrist shot past Grubauer for an unassisted goal. The 10th career tally for 2023’s No. 2 overall pick arrived with 3:25 showing on the clock.
“I had a first-row seat for that one, so it was pretty cool,” Gudas said. “Seeing the angle he was shooting at, I would probably break both of my wrists if I tried to do that. It was nice to see him do these things and feel confident. I would like to see all of our young guys feel that confidence.”
Carlsson sliced into what had already become a 3-0 deficit at the 11:40 mark after a top rookie from last season, Calder Trophy winner Beniers, had Wright’s centering pass bank off his skate and past Dostál. Wright’s three-point night was his first career multipoint effort and gave him four points in three games since his recall from the minors on March 31.
“He was a confident player with the puck and he definitely did a good job on the defensive side as well, but a big piece of that is what you do with the puck once you get it back,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said of Wright.
Seattle had extended its edge to 2-0 just 2:29 into the period when Wright – the fourth overall pick in the 2022 draft – struck a second time on a less-than-stellar defensive effort from the Ducks. A soft rim-around somehow covered the entire perimeter of the zone, eluding Cam Fowler, and went to Justin Schultz at the right point. His pass behind the net for Jaden Schwartz drew Fowler out of position at the net front, where Wright popped a short-side shot through Dostál completely unmolested.
“It was just lost coverage. One guy’s got one guy to cover, and he forgets he’s there. That’s just a completely blown coverage,” Cronin said.
The Ducks might have had the first period’s best scoring opportunity but Seattle scored its only goal, thanks to a deflection tally from a promising rookie and a sterling save from one of the Kraken’s first ever free-agent signings.
Wright scored his first goal of the night with 3:52 left in the frame when he curled from left faceoff dot to the right post to deflect home Bjorkstrand’s shot attempt.
“We lose a faceoff – which has been a real problem for us since the [trade] deadline, when we lost two centermen, [since then] we’ve had a hard time in the dot – then they score on that deflection,” Cronin said.
That was a go-ahead goal rather than an equalizer thanks to a desperate glove save by Grubauer after his skate was clipped, sending him to the ice just as Trevor Zegras blasted a one-timer in his direction.
Zegras sat the final 7:25 of Saturday’s outing, having dealt with a minor issue that withdrew him from the game briefly and getting lost in the special-teams shuffle late, Cronin said.
🚨 Leo 🚨
Between the legs to himself and SNIPE 🎯#FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/nJTlpW3yfn
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) April 6, 2024
