Seattle Kraken offense stays hot with 5 goals in win over Maple Leafs

SEATTLE — The Seattle Kraken have gone streaking again as the Olympic break approaches. They won their third straight game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2.

Two of Seattle’s first-round draft picks combined for three goals at Climate Pledge Arena. Matty Beniers (2021) and Shane Wright (2022) put the Kraken up 2-1, then Wright put the game away at 4-2.

The youngest of the bunch, 2024 eighth overall pick Berkly Catton, left Thursday’s victory following an open-ice collision in the first period and didn’t return. On Catton’s fourth shift of the game, he and Oliver Ekman-Larsson were both going for the puck. Ekman-Larsson came across the ice while Catton stretched out to swipe at the puck at the last second, and Catton’s head connected with the Toronto defenseman’s hip area.

Catton’s glove flew off and he was helped down the tunnel. Ekman-Larsson was not penalized, and had a reportedly civil chat with Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour.

“We don’t like to see that, obviously,” Montour said. “Spoke to him a little bit. He thought it was clean.”

Kraken coach Lane Lambert seemed to agree.

“Ekman-Larsson’s a little bit bigger than Berkly,” Lambert said. “I thought (Catton) got sort of stretched and exposed. It was, in my mind, a little bit of a ‘hockey play.'”

Catton, a rookie who turned 20 on Jan. 14, had to wait 28 games for his first NHL goal but is now steadily contributing. He has five goals and 11 points through 40 games. Lambert said he hadn’t checked on Catton yet and offered no update.

Meanwhile, Wright’s fifth career multigoal game came at an odd time for the center. His name has been on NHL insiders’ keyboards the past week or so. Speculation on his future in Seattle and potential trade value swirled as the third-line center’s numbers drooped following a solid rookie season, and his minutes remained relatively low.

He was once a projected top-overall pick — he ultimately fell to the Kraken at No. 4 — and is one of nine players granted “exceptional status” in the Canadian Hockey League. That essentially meant his career was fast-tracked as a teenager.

Wright shrugged off the trade talk on Friday.

“I don’t really care too much about that,” he said. “No offense to … reporters, but at the end of the day, can’t really trust too much what they say. And at the end of the day, it’s just rumors. I’m not too worried about that.”

Beniers and Jared McCann were both closing in on the 10-goal mark in the month of January, which no Kraken player had ever hit through four-and-a-half seasons of play. Beniers tied Jordan Eberle’s record of nine (Nov. 2021) on Tuesday.

The linemates helped each other set records just 1:21 into the game. Beniers got the franchise mark for goals in a month with one more game to go on Saturday in Vegas. With an assist, McCann set the record for most points in a month with 18 (eight goals, 10 assists), and added another point later when he scored into the empty net.

Beniers has significantly picked up his pace. He scored four goals in the first three months of the season.

Unless he unleashes hell on the Golden Knights on Saturday, Beniers is still a longshot for NHL player-of-the-month honors. He was in a tie for fifth in January goals as league play wrapped up Thursday. One of the players he trails was on the ice with him Thursday — Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews (11).

McCann is nowhere near the January league leaders in points. Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov is sitting on 31 through 13 games. Kucherov’s most recent assist was on former Kraken alternate captain Yanni Gourde’s goal on Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets.

Kraken winger Jaden Schwartz absorbed a leg-to-leg hit and had to be helped off the ice, but he returned in time to set up Wright’s first goal. Wright shoveled Schwartz’s rebound over Toronto goaltender Anthony Stolarz’s shoulder.

“Jaden showed us what veteran leadership – a guy who’s been around the game a long time – can do,” Lambert said. “He knew what position, what situation we were in (with 10 healthy forwards).

“I don’t think he was necessarily 100%, although he looked like it. He gutted it out. I just can’t say enough about the effort of him tonight.”

The Kraken scored again on the very next shift. Montour settled a pass from Freddy Gaudreau and beat Stolarz. It was Montour’s first goal since Dec. 6, but he missed a month of that stretch with a hand injury.

Wright’s second was prettier than his first. Montour pried the puck off the boards and a second later, Wright fit a wrist shot into an almost impossibly tiny gap to make it 4-2 Kraken (25-19-9).

Morgan Rielly scored a power-play goal to get Toronto within a goal during the third period. The Maple Leafs have dropped eight of nine games and six straight.

Joey Daccord, who has looked particularly locked in during his past two starts, made 29 saves. He had the arena chanting his first name after a diving, second-period stop on Toronto defenseman Troy Stecher.

It was the first time in franchise history the Kraken scored five or more goals in consecutive home games.