Opportunity--and Game 4--lost: Kraken can’t hold down Stars in 6-3 loss. Series even again

The Kraken are tied again in a playoff series.

And they are right where they (seem to) want to be. Again.

Back onto the road.

Given the prime chance to seize command of the Stanley Cup playoffs’ Western Conference semifinals Tuesday night at rockin’ Climate Pledge Arena, the Kraken got rolled. They rarely challenged Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger, after shelling him two days earlier. They didn’t forecheck effectively. They didn’t keep the Stars out of Seattle’s end.

Dallas’ constant pressure finally cracked the Kraken for four goals in the second period. The Stars chased Seattle goaltender Phillip Grubauer to the bench and won 6-3 in Game 4.

Seattle scored two goals in the third period, including Adam Larsson’s first of the playoffs with 4:11 left that had the glittering arena bonkers again. Coach Dave Hakstol then pulled his goaltender for an extra attacker down two with 3:14 remaining. The Stars turned that situation into an empty-net goal to quell the crowd and Seattle’s uprising.

“We didn’t get to our game until the third period,” said Jaden Schwartz, who scored both Kraken goals. “They had a higher desperation to start the game, executed better. They were the more aggressive team.

“And we were on our heels. We weren’t able to get enough going offensively, not spending enough time in the ‘O’ zone. ...

“We’ve just got to be ready from the get-go.”

This see-sawing best-of-seven series is tied again, at two wins apiece. That makes it now a best of three for a spot in the Western Conference finals next week.

The Kraken head back to Texas for two of the three possible games to finish this series. Seattle is 4-2 away from Climate Pledge Arena so far in these playoffs. Game 5 is Thursday in Dallas.

The Kraken won three of four away games in round one, including at Colorado in Game 7 to get Seattle into this second round. That was after that series had also been tied at 2 games each.

Two nights later last week, the Kraken won at Dallas in Game 1 of this series, 5-4 in overtime.

“Yeah, we’ve been a good team all year on the road. No different here. We played a good first game in their building,” Schwartz said.

“We’re a confident group. We know what our game looks like. We’ve bounced back.”

Game 6 will be Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena. Game 7 would be Monday at Dallas.

Seattle is 2-3 at home this postseason, the first of the franchise’s two-year existence.

“It’s a three-game series,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said.

Not enough Kraken pressure

Through two periods Tuesday, the Kraken had just 10 shots on goal against Dallas, who got back top defenseman Miro Heiskenan after he took a shot to the face and left Game 3.

By then, Game 4 was essentially over.

Two nights after they shelled him for five goals in one period and chased him to Dallas’ bench, the Kraken truly tested Oettinger just twice before Dallas made Game 4 a blowout.

Oettinger’s first stern challenge didn’t come until midway into the game. The Stars led 2-0 by then.

Seattle’s Adam Larsson had an uncontested wrist shot in the slot with a Dallas defender screened off the shooting lane. Oettinger stared down Larsson and his point-blank shot, and made the save.

A moment later, Dallas’ Max Domi took advantage of teammate Jamie Benn screening and bumping Grubauer in front of the net as Domi shot. Grubauer raised his gloved hand to the referee claiming interference as the puck got past him for a third Stars goal. The referee ruled Seattle’s Carson Soucy had pushed Benn into Grubauer, and that Grubauer had time to recover back into position in the crease.

Kraken coach Dave Hakstol challenged that ruling. A lengthy video replay review with NHL headquarters in Toronto did not find conclusive evidence to overturn the call. The goal stood. Dallas led 3-0.

The crowd howled “BOOOOO!!!”

“I have no idea what the hell goalie interference is anymore. I really don’t. I don’t think anybody does in this league,” said Kraken regular-season scoring leader Jared McCann, who returned from injury to play 13 minutes Tuesday.

“We thought it was guaranteed… (Benn) made contact with Grubi. And then the puck went in.”

The decision on Grubauer’s contact and third Dallas goal was Game 4’s pivot point.

“Grubi got blown out of his spot,” Hakstol said. “He couldn’t do his job.*

Hakstol’s failed challenge resulted in a Seattle penalty, for delay of game. The Stars scored on the ensuing power play. Their second goal while a man up Tuesday made it 4-0 Dallas, and Seattle was flailing.

Between Games 2 and 3, the Kraken had two days off. That had them fresher and flying to play their high-pressure style to begin Game 3, and that’s how Seattle won Sunday..

Back to only one day off between games, the Kraken were slower. That’s lethal against the zooming, shooting Stars.

“Second period, we were just late on everything,” Hakstol said.

The Kraken got one back when Schwartz scored the first of his two goals Tuesday, his fourth and fifth of the playoffs.

But Dallas answered late in the second period with another Benn-Hintz play. Hintz passed to Benn, who passed back to Hintz for a shot then a rebound past Grubauer. That was after another Kraken mistake, a turnover in their own end.

Hintz’s sixth of the postseason made it 5-1 entering the final period.

That’s when Hakstol pulled Grubauer to Seattle’s bench, to rest for Game 5 and the rest of the series. Martin Jones played the third period for his first minutes of this postseason, his first in the playoffs since 2019 when he played for San Jose. Jones stopped the only two shots defense-first Dallas had in the final period.

And there weren’t five goals coming out of nowhere by the Kraken in one period on Oettinger in this one.

“We were better everywhere than we were (in Game 3),” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said.

“Playoffs are about response. And everybody...across our group had great response tonight.”

Not the same Kraken start

The Stars had 11 of the 16 shots in a lopsided first period. Grubauer was the lone reason it ended with the Kraken trailing only 1-0.

Dallas controlled the run of play, as Seattle failed to do what it did so effectively in Game 3 Sunday — and has to do to win this series: effectively and consistently forecheck, hit far up the ice to keep the puck in the Stars’ defensive zone far away from Grubauer.

Instead, the Kraken’s goaltender was often besieged.

Seattle easily could have trailed 3-0 after one. But Grubauer was, as they say in hockey, standing on his head to keep the Kraken in Game 4.

Early in the opening period, Grubauer parried over the crossbar and behind the net a dangerous deflection that was in the air headed for the goal’s upper left corner, over his left shoulder. It was the second time in two games he’d done that, essentially like a soccer goalkeeper tipping a hard drive over the bar and out of danger.

Grubauer robbed Dallas’ Tyler Seguin on his rebound shot from the low slot, pushing it just wide left of goal. Climate Pledge Arena’s fans roared “GRUUUUUU!”

Jordan Eberle took the game’s first penalty, for slashing Domi midway through the first period. On Dallas’ ensuing power play, Grubauer made a brilliant save on Joe Pavelski’s clean re-direct of a deep slap shot onto his pad in the slot. Pavelski scored four goals on Grubauer in Dallas’ 4-2 win in Game 2 last week.

Dallas’ goal amid that early onslaught was from Jamie Benn. His shot off a pass from Roope Hintz on a rush beat Grubauer 17 minutes into the game.

Then it got worse for Seattle. Much worse.

Penalties and other mistakes led to four goals by Dallas in the decisive second period. It was the second consecutive game the middle frame was the game-deciding one with five goals in it.

Defenseman Carson Soucy, who scored his first career playoff goal among seven Kraken scorers in Game 3, left the attack-zone blue line an inched in from the left point early in the second period. But Soucy missed the puck he was chasing.

Dallas’ Thomas Harley sped off the other way with the puck. Harley was uncontested through the neutral zone and in free for a wrist shot from the left face-off circle. It beat Grubauer, who appeared to be looking for help that wasn’t coming. The Stars led 2-0.

Grubauer stopped 17 of 22 shots.

Jared McCann returns

After lightly skating with teammates three consecutive mornings, Jared McCann came onto the ice with 17:41 left in the first period. The Kraken’s leading scorer in the regular season played in his first game since Colorado’s Cale Makar crunched him into the boards with a late hit in Game 4 of the opening round April 24.

“It’s awesome. He’s a big part of our team,” Schwartz said of McCann’s return.

McCann played on the fourth line. He took the lineup spot of Daniel Sprong. Sprong missed the game after getting hurt playing just 6 1/2 minutes of Game 3 Sunday.

McCann and his Kraken teammates didn’t like two Stars bumping McCann after a race to a puck deep in Seattle’s end the linesman called icing against the Kraken early in the second period. A brief, mini scrum of four players ensued.

McCann and Larsson got involved in a scrap with Dallas’ Benn and Hintz behind Grubauer, after Hintz took a whack at the pads of Seattle’s goalie following his save on a power play with 9:52 left in the second period. That resulted in four penalties, two on the Kraken penalty including McCann for roughing Benn.

The Stars scored a moment later to make it 4-0, off a rebound following a pad save by Grubauer.

McCann played 13 minutes, had four shots and two penalties.

“It’s tough jumping in back into the pace of the game tonight,” Hakstol said. “From my vantage point, I thought the game slowed down as the game went on. ...

“His pace and his confidence got better throughout the game.”