By Vin A. Cherwoo / Associated Press
NEW YORK — Jared McCann had a goal and an assist, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 19 shots for the first shutout in franchise history as the expansion Seattle Kraken beat the New York Islanders 3-0 Wednesday night.
Mason Appleton had a goal and an assist and Vince Dunn also scored to help Seattle to its third win in seven games. Grubauer got his 19th career shutout and first since last May 12 against Los Angeles in the season finale while playing for Colorado.
“Great game from everybody,” Grubauer said. “Without the guys in front of me, there’s no chance to do that. … It feels good to get that one.”
The Kraken go into the All-Star break last in the Pacific Division at 15-27-4 (34 points).
“Tonight was a real good hard-fought team win where they did their part,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “Our guys did a really good job of being ready to play. I like the way we competed and skated.”
Semyon Varlamov had 28 saves and lost his third straight start for New York, falling to 3-9-1 this season. The Islanders have lost four of six and remained 17 points out of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
The Islanders finished with their lowest shot total of the season.
“Too many turnovers, (we) got outcompeted, their will was a lot stronger than our will,” New York coach Barry Trotz said. “They wanted it more. Words don’t mean anything, it’s actions. … To me it’s one of the more disappointing games that I’ve coached as Islanders coach. It was quite disappointing. … I didn’t think our level of desire today was very good.”
The Kraken got the game’s first goal at 6:04 of the third. Former Islander Jordan Eberle got the puck behind the net and sent a pass out to McCann on the right side and he fired a shot from a sharp angle, sending the puck off Varlamov’s left shoulder and in. It was McCann’s career high-tying 19th of the season.
Dunn made it 2-0 soon after as he got a pass from Mason Appleton above the left circle, skated through traffic and put backhander past a screened Varlamov on the blocker side for his fifth.
Appleton added an empty-netter in the closing seconds for his fifth.
After getting off to a slow start in the first period, the Islanders had only two shots on goal over the first 11 minutes of the second and were outshot 9-6 for the period.
Grubauer had a stellar save, sliding to his left to deny a one-timer by Zach Parise from the right dot with 6:51 left in the middle period.
Seattle outshot New York 11-5 in the first period. The Kraken got the first six shots on goal of the game. New York didn’t get its first attempt until Andy Greene’s weak shot from the point at 6:37. The Islanders’ second shot came on Brock Nelson’s attempt from between the circles with 5:37 remaining in the period.
“That is the identity that you try to strive for,” Eberle said. “We defend much like I like to make the comparison that (Islanders) did when I was here.”
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