Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn shines in 5-2 win over Islanders

Kate Shefte, The Seattle Times on Dec 5, 2024

Published in Hockey

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Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn looks to be settling into form after missing nearly a month and a half due to injury.

He had a goal and two assists during a 5-2 victory Thursday against the New York Islanders as the Kraken moved to 2-0 to start the road trip.

It wasn’t without a scare. With 8:03 left in the game, goaltender Joey Daccord’s shutout bid ended. Daccord (28 saves) had just popped up off the ice during a spurt of Islanders pressure and Noah Dobson put one past him stick side.

With little to lose, New York coach Patrick Roy pulled his goaltender with about six and a half minutes left in regulation where conventional wisdom is around two to three minutes. The Islanders then collapsed on a rebound and New York’s Casey Cizikas was credited with making a game that had long been stubbornly 4-0 Kraken, suddenly 4-2.

With 2:40 left and the New York cage still empty, Seattle’s Jaden Schwartz won a footrace to center ice and barely got a stick on the contested puck. It was enough of a smack for an empty-netter and win security.

Dunn got a goal of his own after assisting on the first two Kraken (13-13-1) strikes on Long Island. First teammate Tye Kartye stretched out to tip a Dunn bomb, perfectly arched past the foot of Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin to get the scoring started.

Seattle teammate Oliver Bjorkstrand made it 2-0 with 3:02 left in the period, a power-play goal for Seattle’s 30th-ranked power play, just one place above New York's at 14.6% efficiency heading into the game. Bjorkstrand redirected Dunn’s point shot ever so gently for his seventh goal of the season. Bjorkstrand has a point in seven straight games, to the tune of three goals and six assists.

Dunn’s goal was a thing of beauty. He made almost a full lap of the offensive zone, taking the puck around the back of the net, briefly tapping it to Adam Larsson, grabbing it back, fluttering along the blue line and then up a little, where he scored his first since the Kraken’s very first goal of the season Oct. 8 against St. Louis. He’s missed all but seven games this season due to injury, but now is averaging a point per game (two goals, five assists) when healthy.

Twenty-year-old Kraken center Shane Wright scored from the top of the left faceoff circle late in the second period. It was his third power-play goal in four games.

Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour’s double-minor for high-sticking gave the league’s second-worst power play four minutes to work with. It spanned the late second period and early third, but the Islanders couldn’t take advantage.

After an embarrassing three straight losses to the lowly Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks, two of which were at home, the Kraken have won back-to-back on a tricky road trip. They beat 16-7-1 Carolina at home on Tuesday and evened their record again by Thursday.