When the Seattle Kraken last traveled to Calgary on Dec. 18, they hit rock bottom.
The Kraken allowed three third-period goals in a 4-2 loss that capped a 1-9-1 skid. By the end of the next night, they were tied for last overall in the NHL standings.
Seattle and Calgary are set to meet again Monday night in Alberta, only with the Kraken in a much different situation. They are 6-0-1 since that loss and sit in a Western Conference wild-card spot.
Whether the Kraken are contenders or pretenders should be determined in January, when they have an NHL record-tying 17 games scheduled.
One of the keys to the Kraken’s success has been the play of their fourth line. Ben Meyers, Ryan Winterton and Jacob Melanson combined for 11 of Seattle’s 28 shots on goal Friday in a 4-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks.
Meyers, who had eight of those shots, scored late in the second period to give the Kraken a 3-1 lead.
“That line has been very responsible, very good,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “And with these games that we have coming up and the number of games that we’ve all talked about in January, we’re going to have to have everybody (contributing quality minutes).”
Winterton and Melanson are both riding three-game point streaks.
“We’re just focused on playing simple and being hard to play against,” said Meyers, “and things are working out and we’re finding success just doing the simple things right.”
The Kraken also got a goal from defenseman Cale Fleury, his first since his rookie season with Montreal in 2019-20.
“Anytime you score, it’s exciting, but it’s been a while in this league for me, so it was special,” Fleury said. “For me, it’s just trusting my abilities. I know I’m in this league for a reason. I talked with Coach too, (and) he’s just telling me to play with confidence, so when you have Coach telling you that it would be kind of rude not to.”
The Flames have also been on the rise, with that previous win over Seattle igniting a 5-2-0 streak. That’s despite a 4-3 home loss to Nashville on Saturday, in which they allowed the decisive goal with 29 seconds remaining.
“I don’t think it was a great game for us compared to the ones we’ve played over the last little while,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “I only thought we had maybe five guys that were at a level that I think they should have been at. I thought Nashville was much quicker than us for the majority part of the game. Not a great night.”
Blake Coleman scored the tying goal for the Flames in the third period, Matt Coronato had two assists and goaltender Dustin Wolf stopped 32 shots.
“We were stubborn all night, and it came back to bite us at one of the biggest times of the game,” Coleman said. “It’s just one of those things where in that situation and that score and where we are, it’s early to be talking standings, but we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to really climb. There’s no excuse for it.”
Flames forward Johnny Beecher left the game in the second period after sustaining an apparent upper-body injury in a fight with Nashville’s Nicolas Hague. Beecher didn’t return, and his coach didn’t have an update on his status. Beecher was also suspended one game Sunday by the NHL for roughing Nashville’s Michael McCarron.
–Field Level Media
