Kraken score 5 unanswered to dump Blue Jackets

Tuesday’s first intermission pep talk wasn’t complicated, as conveyed by Kraken winger Brandon Tanev. 

“Lazy, sloppy hockey,” Tanev recalled.

“But at the end of the day, we had 40 minutes to figure it out. And we definitely did that.” 

After a rough first period left them trailing, the Kraken charged back, scoring five unanswered goals on the way to a 5-2 win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets. Seattle won its second in a row at Climate Pledge Arena.

Winger Tye Kartye struck first for Seattle (7-8-1) and snapped a jersey-matching, 12-game losing streak. He hadn’t scored since Game 2 in Minnesota and was a healthy scratch one week ago in Colorado. He muscled his way to the net and swerved a backhander around the foot of Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins.

“I was just standing in front of the net,” Kartye said. “(Adam) Larsson got it there, (Andre) Burakovsky got it there, and I just kind of jammed it. There wasn’t much to it.” 

Up next was Kartye’s fourth-line cohort Tanev, who scored off a 2-on-1 with Yanni Gourde and made it three goals in two games. Eeli Tolvanen made quick work — six seconds, faceoff to goal horn — of a Kraken power play, and defenseman Will Borgen tallied his first of the season to make it 4-2, shrugging off a rocky start of his own.

Friday’s overtime hero Jared McCann (one goal, one assist) contributed an empty-netter.

The Blue Jackets (5-8-2) came to Seattle on a five-game losing streak, and for the first 20 or so minutes, it looked like that was about to end. Columbus scored 22 seconds apart and took a 2-0 lead into the first period break.

Kraken defenseman Borgen found himself in a brief square dance, the unwilling dance partner of Columbus’ Sean Kuraly, who all but locked arms and spun the Kraken defenseman in the crease in front of goaltender Joey Daccord (38 saves). Daccord lost track of the puck and the Blue Jackets were on the board.

Then Kraken blueliner Josh Mahura wiped out along the boards under pressure and the puck spit out to Columbus’ Zach Aston-Reese, who stepped in front of man-of-the-hour Borgen and redirected the pass past Daccord.

The Kraken called a timeout to settle down.

“The timeout was a little bit of a reset. I don’t think it necessarily worked,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “But the message after the first was to get your heads up and expect what we can expect from the Blue Jackets.”

They kept the deficit there, then got to work on it early in the second period, starting with Kartye’s goal 2:50 in.

Seattle has enjoyed a winning record at home once in three seasons, and just barely. The Kraken have turned in some of their best efforts at home and sit 4-3-1 at Climate Pledge Arena so far.

For the second straight game, depth goaltender Ales Stezka backed up Daccord after a brief reassignment to Coachella Valley (AHL). Philipp Grubauer is still recovering from an injury sustained at home last week. He skated Tuesday, as did injured defenseman Vince Dunn, who was eligible to return from long-term injured reserve against Columbus but, per general manager Ron Francis in a recent interview, is still about two weeks away from returning.

In memoriam

The Blue Jackets wore “13” patches on their jerseys above the team logo in honor of former teammate Johnny “Hockey” Gaudreau, 31, who died in August. He was fatally struck while on a bike ride with his brother and Boston College teammate Matthew, 29, on a county road in New Jersey.

The Kraken showed a video honoring the brothers before their season opener Oct. 8. Johnny’s 10-year NHL career was spent in Calgary and Columbus, and he didn’t cross paths with current Kraken players on either stop, except for when they were admiring his moves from the other bench.

“It’s crazy what he brought to the league,” Gourde said.

At just 5-foot-9, Johnny Gaudreau was a college star and NHL wunderkind while with the Flames. Oliver Bjorkstrand was part of the chain of events that got Gaudreau to Columbus. Bjorkstrand’s trade from the Blue Jackets to the Kraken was a salary dump, so Columbus could afford its recent, blockbuster signings in 2022.

Johnny was embraced in Columbus, not as a young phenom but a skilled veteran and family man. He left behind wife Meredith, two young children and a baby on the way. Matthew’s wife Madeline was expecting their first child. The entire Blue Jackets team attended the brothers’ funeral.

From everything Gourde has heard from those who knew them, they were “great human beings.”

“That’s the word that resonated,” Seattle’s alternate captain said. “They were great people and great hockey players.”

On Tuesday, the driver accused of hitting both brothers while intoxicated made a brief appearance in court, where the judge said no plea deal was on the table. He has been in custody since Aug. 29, the night of the accident.