Kraken’s losing streak hits 3 as Oilers’ win streak reaches 12

EDMONTON, Alberta — Whether or not this really was the “must win” game Jordan Eberle described it as earlier this week, the Kraken sure came out Thursday night playing as if it was.

They went right at the Edmonton Oilers, scoring a pair of first-period goals and putting the home team’s franchise record 11-game winning streak in serious jeopardy. Unfortunately for the Kraken, the middle portion of what became a hard-fought 4-2 loss at Rogers Place Arena saw the Oilers demonstrate the offensive firepower that’s helped snag them a dozen victories in a row.

A pair of goals by unheralded Warren Foegele — who somehow has five in 10 lifetime games against the Kraken — and another by Leon Draisaitl in the opening seven-plus minutes of the middle period erased the early advantage before the visitors knew what hit them. That overcame first period Kraken goals by Eeli Tolvanen and Jared McCann and by the game’s halfway mark, netminder Joey Daccord had already faced 19 shots and was diving all over his crease trying to keep more pucks out.

The Kraken nearly tied it toward the end of the middle period when Daccord hit Alex Wennberg with a long stretch pass and he beat Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner with a wrist shot that would have tied the game. But the Oilers successfully challenged that Wennberg had crossed Edmonton’s blue line ahead of puck and the goal was taken off the board.

The Kraken pressed for the tying marker in the third, but Yanni Gourde took a five-minute major for charging with 3:34 to go and Connor McDavid scored on the ensuing power play to pretty much end it.

Edmonton entered with the NHL’s fifth best goals per game mark at 3.50 and has spent the past month building that up after a rough start. They’ve scored 48 goals in the dozen wins and cut down significantly on those allowed, giving up two or fewer in 10 consecutive outings.

Their penalty kill also held the Kraken scoreless in five power play opportunities.

Likewise, the byproduct winning streak of all that production and prevention has sent Edmonton rocketing up the Pacific Division standings to a 25-15-1 mark that’s five points better than the Kraken with the Oilers holding four games in hand.

For an undermanned Kraken side, which did get the injured Andre Burakovsky back while Matty Beniers and Vince Dunn remained sidelined, a third straight defeat indeed underscored the importance outlined by Eberle. The Kraken had just used a nine-game win streak of their own to vault back into playoff contention, though their standings perch was still rather perilous after some well-documented struggles the opening two months.

They’ve already endured a losing streak of eight games and can ill-afford another prolonged stretch on that side of the ledger. But that’s indeed what they now face with this seemingly interminable six-city road trip finally done and the Toronto Maple Leafs due in town on Sunday.

The Kraken have only beaten the Leafs once in their history, going 1-3-1, though Toronto has also been struggling of late and is feeling the heat from its high-pressure fan base to secure some wins.

At the beginning of this trip, a .500 record in the six games would have seemed a decent outcome for a Kraken side going up against some NHL heavyweights on the back end. But finishing with the three losses takes some of the spark out of that 3-3 record and the trick now will be for this 19-17-9 team to avoid the slide getting any more out of hand.

This game started out well enough, with Oliver Bjorkstrand hitting Tolvanen with a breakaway pass midway through and watching him beat Skinner top shelf. Fewer than four minutes later, Eberle set up McCann in close and he also went upstairs on Skinner for his team-leading 18 th goal of the season and a 2-0 lead.

The two Kraken goals was more than they’d scored their last two games combined.

Brandon Tanev then had a golden chance to make it a three-goal lead, but lost the puck on a breakaway when he tried to make a deke move.

The Oilers then cut the lead in half just 37 seconds into the second period as the Kraken gave the puck away and the Edmonton began throwing it around at-will. Draisaitl threw a cross-ice pass to Foegele on the left side and he fired it home 37 seconds in before Daccord could get over to cover.

Then, just seconds after a penalty to Tomas Tatar, the vaunted Oilers power play went to work and Draisaitl scored by banking a puck in off Daccord from the side of the net. Not long after, Foegele was sent in alone on a breakaway and scored to put the Oilers ahead to stay.

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OILERS 4, KRAKEN 2