It wasn’t really that close. The Ducks built a 4-0 lead over the Kraken into the 3rd period and held on to a 4-2 victory despite a very late Seattle comeback attempt.
“Too little, too late,” Seattle head coach Lane Lambert said postgame. “We weren’t good enough tonight. This is two games in a row now that we’ve played Anaheim where they’ve looked like the better team for better parts of the game.”
The head-to-head win jumped the Ducks into 3rd place in the Pacific Division and dropped the Kraken into the 2nd Western Conference wild card spot, one point ahead of the LA Kings. (61 over 60)
Seattle plays in Los Angeles on Wednesday night; yet another regular season playoff game of sorts. The Kings have a game-in-hand.
The pivotal moments in Tuesday night’s game overlapped the second and third periods. Up one-nothing, the Ducks scored the 2-0 goal with just 33-seconds remaining in the second period. Jacob Trouba ripped a shot from the right point that beat Philipp Grubauer through traffic.
Just 57-seconds later in actual playing time, at the :24-second mark of the third period, veteran forward Alex Killorn scored from a tough angle when he fired a shot from the right circle through the legs of a stumbling Grubauer. There was tight traffic, but nothing that would be ruled goaltender interference.
The Kraken were buried when Ross Johnston made it 4-0 at 13:54.
Seattle picked up goals in the last five minutes from Jordan Eberle (20) and Tye Kartye (3).
“It hurts a lot,” Lambert added. “We were tied with them coming into the game and now we’re not, so not a good night for our team.”
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