Stars sweep two-game set against Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena
Seattle Times staff reporter
Those buying beers or battling traffic missed nearly all the scoring action in a 3-1 Dallas Stars victory over the Kraken on Monday night at Climate Pledge Arena. There were three goals in the first 3:19, and then none at all until a Stars empty netter with 1:07 left in the game.
On the Kraken’s second shift, winger Kaapo Kakko passed the puck off to linemate Jaden Schwartz for safekeeping and cut straight up the middle to the net. Kakko scored his 14th of the season 1:02 into the game, setting a new career high with 41 points.
Twenty-seven (10 goals, 17 assists) of Kakko’s 41 points came following a trade to Seattle from the New York Rangers on Dec. 18.
At the other end of the ice, Seattle’s Jared McCann blocked a shot and fell to the ice in pain. The puck bounced straight back to the shooter, Matt Dumba, who tapped it to Mason Marchment for a shot. Matt Duchene tipped it in.
Then Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn tried to tie up Wyatt Johnston’s stick as Johnson slid around him, but the Stars forward still got a shot off and scored his second in three days against the Kraken, 45 seconds after Duchene’s goal.
For a long time, that was it. Seattle’s Jani Nyman, appearing in his 10th NHL game, had a point-blank chance in tight that wouldn’t go. Schwartz came close several times. Shane Wright was often in the right place with the right idea. The Stars took back-to-back minor penalties with 10 seconds of overlap, but even with that advantage, the Kraken couldn’t convince the score to budge.
Philipp Grubauer made his first start in nearly two weeks. He allowed Dallas’ goals on the second and third shots he faced, then made 27 more saves, several of them tricky.
Dallas took both games during a two-game trip to Seattle. On Saturday night at Climate Pledge Arena, the Stars clinched their own 2025 playoff spot and eliminated the Kraken (31-38-6) from contention. A first-round Stars series against the Colorado Avalanche, in which Dallas will have home-ice advantage as the higher seed, looks likely.
The Kraken, meanwhile, will head off on a five-game road swing starting in Vancouver on Wednesday. They’ll host two more games at Climate Pledge Arena before their season ends.