Jamie Oleksiak scored on a slap shot from the blue line with 3:13 left in the third period as the Seattle Kraken defeated the visiting New York Islanders 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.
Yanni Gourde and Jared McCann also scored for the Kraken, who improved to 4-0-0 on their six-game homestand. Goaltender Joey Daccord made 22 saves, including one on a short-handed breakaway by Brock Nelson with 1:55 remaining.
Pierre Engvall and Nelson scored for the Islanders, who had a five-game point streak snapped (3-0-2). Ilya Sorokin stopped 24 of 27 shots.
Oleksiak’s winner came after Seattle’s fourth line of Gourde, Brandon Tanev and Tye Kartye pinned the puck deep in New York’s end of the rink. The puck came back to Oleksiak, whose blast deflected off Nelson’s skate and past Sorokin. Islanders coach Patrick Roy challenged the play, claiming Tanev had interfered with Sorokin in the crease, but a replay determined there was no penalty.
Tied at 1-1 entering the third period, the Islanders took the lead on a short-handed goal by Nelson at 4:49. Noah Dobson banked a pass off the left-wing boards from his own end to send Nelson on a breakaway. Daccord stopped Nelson’s initial shot but the Islanders forward shoveled his own rebound in the net.
The Kraken wasted little time in tying it back up as McCann scored at 5:26. Andre Burakovsky got the puck along the right-wing boards at center ice, spun and fed McCann, who had gotten behind the defense. McCann beat Sorokin with a wrist shot from the slot to extend his point streak to five games (four goals, three assists).
The Kraken opened the scoring at 8:10 of the first period. Tanev, who scored four goals over the previous three games, took the puck behind the net and came back out on the left wing, spinning to his forehand for a sharp-angled shot. The puck hit Gourde, stationed at the far post, just below his neck guard and dropped over the goal line.
The Islanders tied it at 13:38. Daccord stopped Ryan Pulock’s blistering slap shot from the high slot but Engvall got his stick between the feet of Kraken forward Oliver Bjorkstrand to knock the rebound into the net.
Forward Daniel Sprong made his return to the Kraken after being acquired in a trade with Vancouver. Sprong, who scored 21 goals for Seattle in 2022-23, replaced captain Jordan Eberle, who suffered a lower-body injury in Thursday’s game against Chicago.
–Field Level Media