Ducks done in by another 2-goal blitz in loss to Kraken

ANAHEIM — For a second straight game, the Ducks held a lead only to see their efforts thwarted by a spurt of two goals in less than one minute by their opponent, this time in a 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Monday night at Honda Center.

Friday, they led 2-0 against Buffalo but fell 3-2 in overtime after giving up a pair of goals in 50 seconds, and they carried a 2-1 lead into Monday’s third period before surrendering two tallies just 24 seconds apart. The Ducks saw their four-game points streak come to an end, while Seattle prevailed for the sixth time in its past eight games.

Trevor Zegras and Frank Vatrano scored a goal apiece, and both were set up by Troy Terry. Lukáš Dostál made 25 saves. Mason McTavish returned after missing six games with an upper-body injury, but Leo Carlsson left the match in the second period and did not return.

Shane Wright, Andre Burakovsky and Brandon Montour all scored for Seattle. Wright added an assist while Ryker Evans tacked on two helpers. Joey Daccord stopped 21 shots.

Both Terry and Ducks coach Greg Cronin concurred that the Ducks’ solid start faded into some poor habits and discombobulation.

“Whatever the case was in the second period, whether it was penalties, they were making a push, it just felt like we lost (momentum) a bit in the second period,” Terry said. “Their momentum in the second carried into the start of the third, so it’s just learning how to manage those momentum swings and being able to lock it down.”

There was intermittent noise from the Ducks’ offense late, like Vatrano’s breakaway and Terry’s laser from the slot, but they were effectively condemned to defeat by Seattle’s surge to begin the third period.

The Kraken reassumed control of the contest with strikes at the 0:46 and 1:10 marks of the final frame.

Wright won an offensive-zone faceoff back to Montour for a slap shot through traffic that gave Dostál less of a chance to see the puck than the trail of smoke behind it. Montour’s seventh goal of the season put him one behind the league leader among defensemen, Colorado’s Cale Makar, and stood as the game-winner.

Seattle had tied the score awkwardly when Dostál’s attempt to clear a puck in his crease sent it off his teammate Pavel Mintyukov and then Burakovsky for the Swede’s first goal of the campaign.

Both Vatrano and Cronin said they felt there was no common thread uniting Seattle’s rapid-fire offense Monday with that of Buffalo on Friday.

“They were very independent from any structural things,” Cronin said of the two goals Monday.

Late in the second period, Seattle winger Tye Kartye checked Carlsson forcefully before Carlsson collided with the goal post and hit the ice hard, leaving him on the deck for some time before he headed down the tunnel to be evaluated. The Ducks didn’t end up with so much as a power play out of the ordeal, and needed help from their penalty killers and the pipes to preserve their 2-1 lead at the second intermission. Daniel Sprong hit a post before the Kraken earned a power play during which Jaden Schwartz also nicked the steel.

The Ducks had taken their first lead 6:17 into the period off of a lively sequence that culminated in a seam pass by Terry at the left faceoff dot to Olen Zellweger at the right dot for a shot that created a tap-in goal for Vatrano. It was Vatrano’s third goal of the season after notching a career-best and team-leading 37 last year.

Twenty minutes came and went with little to distinguish two sides that were even on shots on net, scoring chances and goals as they played to a 1-1 stalemate.

The Ducks brought the game back to even with 4:01 left during a delayed penalty.

Zegras and Terry played the two-man game across all three zones. Terry left the puck for Zegras in the Ducks’ end before he received it back in the neutral zone, weaving through defenders and sending a saucer pass across to Zegras for a wrist shot from close range. It was Zegras’ third goal of the season and his fifth point in five games, distancing him for his previous stretch with just one point in 12 outings.

“(Zegras) is a big part of our team that creates offense for us and likes to make plays, so the more we get him going, the better our team is going to be,” Vatrano said.

Though it took 6:22 for the Ducks to record the game’s first shot on goal, Seattle’s very first strike on net was a goal at the 7:12 mark. It capped a Herculean shift by Wright on which he intercepted Jackson LaCombe’s outlet pass, dispossessed Zelwegger on the forecheck, recovered a shot attempt and, ultimately, tipped in Oliver Bjorkstrand’s shot for his second goal of the year.

Wright, the fourth overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft, had the best game of his young career at Honda Center on April 5 when he scored two goals and set up the third in Seattle’s 3-1 victory. He had been a healthy scratch in the Kraken’s previous three games before Monday.

The Ducks next travel to Seattle to complete the back end of this home-and-home set on Wednesday night.

The Kraken have now won four times in Anaheim and four times at home during an eight-game winning streak against the Ducks that dates to November 2022.