VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Jordan Eberle had a goal and two assists as the Seattle Kraken defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on Saturday night.
Jamie Oleksiak, Yanni Gourde and Matty Beniers also scored for Seattle (7-8-4), which won back-to-back games for the second time this season. Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves.
“More than not we’ve found ways to lose games in third periods rather than find a win, so it was nice to find a way to win here against a really good team that has obviously been pretty good at home,” Eberle said. “So hopefully this kick-starts us in the right direction.”
J.T. Miller, Quinn Hughes and Nils Hoglander scored for Vancouver (12-5-1), which has lost two in a row. Thatcher Demko stopped 22 shots.
Miller and Hughes are tied with teammate Elias Pettersson for the NHL lead in points with 28 apiece.
“I think that we all know we have a good team in here,” Hughes said. “We’re going to win lots of hockey games this year and we’re not going to go on 10-game winning streaks the whole year.”
Eberle set up Beniers at 6:48 of the third period to put Seattle ahead 4-2.
Hoglander scored with 11 seconds left, tipping in an airborne puck in front.
“Our changes were awful. Long shifts, that’s .500 hockey. You can’t win that way. It wasn’t good enough,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Awful changes and long shifts and that’s what happens.”
Gourde gave the Kraken a 3-2 lead at 4:19 of the third. Eeli Tolvanen sent a cross-ice pass to Will Borgen, who popped it in front of the net for Gourde to convert on a tap-in.
“That’s the way you have to win on the road. We found a good level and we played hard for 60 minutes,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “Specialty teams were good, goaltending was good, and that’s how you win on the road.”
Canucks forward Andrei Kuzmenko returned to the lineup. He left Wednesday’s win over the New York Islanders after taking Miller's slap shot to the chin.
“Sometimes you can lose games in a better fashion than others. We had an opportunity to salvage something and we got outworked,” Miller said.
UP NEXT
Kraken: Begin a three-game homestand Monday against Calgary.
Canucks: Host the San Jose Sharks on Monday night.
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