SEATTLE — Matty Beniers found his goal-scoring touch in time to salvage a point for the Kraken against the best team in the league.
Beniers scored his first two goals of the season, including one with 3:22 left in the third period, but the Kraken fell 4-3 in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night. Winnipeg remained the only unbeaten team in the league and improved to 7-0 when Nikolaj Ehlers jumped on during a delayed penalty in overtime and slipped one past Joey Daccord.
Despite the OT loss and some mistakes from a few veterans that led to goals for Winnipeg, it was a gutty effort from the Kraken (4-3-1) rallying from a two-goal deficit to force overtime and earn a point by besting one of the top goalies in the league.
“They’re a good team. I thought we played well throughout the night and that was some good character coming back there in the end,” Beniers said. “And tying that up, taking it to overtime, obviously you want a different outcome, but there’s a lot of positives to build off that comeback.”
Jordan Eberle gave the Kraken life slipping a backhanded goal past Connor Hellebuyck with 8:59 left to pull within 3-2. It was Eberle’s sixth goal in eight games, continuing the hottest start to a season in his career.
But this night belonged to the two goals from Beniers. His first goal midway through the first period was a snipe that beat Hellebuyck over his right shoulder into the top corner of the net.
The equalizer was even better. Beniers’ second goal came with 3:22 left and pulled the Kraken even at 3-3 as he redirected Brandon Montour’s shot from the blue line and slipped it past Hellebuyck. It was the second career two-goal game for Beniers, the other coming early in the 2022-23 season in a wild 9-8 overtime win over the Kings.
“I think the defensive side of the game has been there all year for him. I think the chances to score and have also been there for him pretty good amounts in the last three or four games. But I thought he was at another level. It was his best game of the year attacking,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said.
The Kraken outplayed the Jets for large chunks of the game and saw Daccord turn in a performance worthy of a win with 32 saves including some great stops on high-danger chances.
But Seattle had a bit of bad luck in the second and a pair of defensive breakdowns that led to Winnipeg goals and led to the need for a comeback.
It was a save from Daccord that led to Winnipeg’s first goal when his blocker stop of a shot from former Kraken forward Mason Appleton deflected off the body of Nino Niederreiter and trickled into the net early in the second period. The Kraken had Oliver Bjorkstrand’s goal off a terrific pass from Adam Larsson waived off when Yanni Gourde was ruled to have interfered with Hellebuyck, and it was Bjorkstrand’s inability to clear the defensive zone that led to the Jets taking a 2-1 lead late in the second period.
Bjorkstrand was turned over by Kyle Connor in Seattle’s defensive zone and Gabriel Vilardi eventually finished the play to give the Jets a 2-1 lead.
The capper came early in the third period when Jamie Oleksiak and Brandon Tanev lost track of Niederreiter, who buried his second after Daccord came out a little too aggressively.
Bylsma seemed to get the performance he was hoping for by shuffling his forward lines and specifically getting Beniers back with some familiar wingers.
Beniers had just one point through the first seven games, which came on an assist in the win over Nashville. Before Thursday’s game, Beniers was part of the shake-up that saw him land back on a line with Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann — a trio that’s played a lot of minutes and scored a fair share of goals over the past two seasons.
Box score available here.
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