Eeli Tolvanen scores pair as Kraken beat Predators 7-2
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - MARCH 25: Eeli Tolvanen #20 of the Seattle Kraken celebrates his goal against the Nashville Predators during an NHL game at Bridgestone Arena on March 25, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Russell/NHLI via Getty Imag
Eeli Tolvanen posted the first multi-goal game of his career against his former team, Jared McCann (35 goals) and Matty Beniers (20 goals) hit new milestones, and the Seattle Kraken gained ground in the playoff race with a 7-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon.
With the victory, the Kraken move to 88 points on the season. It's a 28-point improvement from their 60-point total from their inaugural season, which sets a new NHL record for greatest improvement from an expansion team from their first year to their second year in the Original Six era (since 1967-68). The 1973-74 New York Islanders made a 26-point improvement in their second season.
Seattle is now eight points clear of Nashville, who is the first team out of the playoff race. Via MoneyPuck.com, the Kraken's odds of making the playoffs increased to 99.2 percent following the win over the Predators.
"I feel like we played the whole game really well. They got a little tired, maybe a little sloppy and we just capitalized on all the opportunities we got in the third," Tolvanen told Piper Shaw of ROOT Sports.
Tolvanen scored a pair of goals to reach 15 on the year with Seattle and 17 overall. The Predators placed Tolvanen on waivers in December and he's played 38 games for the Kraken since entering the lineup on New Year's Day. The 15 goals with the Kraken alone were already enough to be a new career-high after a pair of 11-goal campaigns with the Predators.
"He just keeps working hard," head coach Dave Hakstol said of Tolvanen. "What he did today is what he's been doing for us all the way along. … Maybe the biggest play of the game was the 3-1 goal at that point in time to be able to extend the game back to a two-goal lead, that was a big one for us and we've come to count on him."
After Daniel Sprong scored for a third straight game to give Seattle an early 1-0 lead, Tolvanen ripped a power play goal by Juuse Saros to make it a 2-0 Kraken lead in the first period. Alex Wennberg delivered a great screen of Saros and Tolvanen's shot found the top right corner as Seattle dominated the first period.
The Kraken out-shot Nashville by a 13-1 margin in the opening frame. Philipp Grubauer made 14 saves on 16 shots in his return to the lineup after missing a week due to illness. The 16 shots against ties a season-low for fewest shots allowed in a game.
"We were playing good on all cylinders. Everyone was contributing," Beniers said.
But the Predators quickly found a counterpunch early in the second period. A hard rebound off Philip Grubauer on a Philip Tomasino shot gave an empty net look for Tyson Barrie to make it a 2-1 game less than two minutes into the period.
Grubauer then delivered his biggest save of the day as he stoned a breakaway look from Tomasino midway through the period to preserve Seattle's lead.
"They didn't have a ton of chances but they had the breakaway and that's a big point in the hockey game in terms of momentum." Hakstol said.
Tolvanen blocked a Barrie shot attempt that sprung Oliver Bjorkstrand on a breakaway look. Saros came way out of his net to play the puck and fired it directly to Tolvanen, who beat Saros as he scrambled back toward his net to make it a 3-1 Seattle lead through two periods.
"He's been awesome ever since he got here," Beniers said of Tolvanen. "He's a great guy so it's even better to see him come back here and do what he does best, which is scoring goals. He's an absolute threat and he's awesome and so I'm so happy for him to get those tonight and he's been playing great."
It took just 53 seconds into the third period for the Predators to answer again. Matt Duchene tipped a Tomasino shot high over the shoulder of Grubauer to cut the lead to 3-2.
But the Kraken turned on the afterburners and left the Predators behind.
Adam Larsson answered less than three minutes later off a great pass from McCann to make it a 4-2 game. A 3-on-2 break let to a give-and-go from Beniers with Vince Dunn as he beat Saros to extend the lead to 5-2. McCann forced a turnover at the Predators blue line for a breakaway look for a top shelf finish, and Bjorkstrand backhanded a puck out of the air in front of the goal that beat Saros to push the lead to five.
The Kraken had four goals in a span of 11:58 to put the game away.
"We wanted to challenge ourselves to be just a little bit better than we were the other day," Hakstol said of the team's 2-1 shootout loss to Nashville on Thursday night. "Just elevate a bit in some of the competitive areas of the game and we had a really good response."
For Beniers, it was his first goal in over a month. He last scored a goal against the Boston Bruins on February 23. It was just his fourth goal in his last 30 games played as his scoring pace has slowed in the second half of the year.
"That's just part of the game. You've just got to get through it, keep playing your game and not think about it too much and things like that come," Beniers said.
Nevertheless, Beniers is the first rookie this season to reach 50 points. He only trails Dallas Stars rookie Wyatt Johnson and his 21 goals for most by a rookie in the NHL this year.
"He's gone through a couple of spells. Not long droughts, but he's gone through a couple of spells," Hakstol said. "If it bothers him, he doesn't show it. He keeps just pushing the envelope and playing hard and I think that's what we all really respect about him."
The Kraken will be at least seven points clear in the standings by the end of Saturday. The Calgary Flames can get within seven with a win over the San Jose Sharks. With 88 points already, it would take a catastrophic finish for Seattle to miss the postseason. As few as 94 points may be needed to get into the playoffs and the Kraken still have favorable matchups ahead with three games against Arizona and contests against Vancouver and Chicago, all of which are way outside of the playoff race.