Kraken’s quick strikes and late reply leave Canucks chasing in 4-2 Seattle loss

Seattle set the terms before Vancouver settled in

Seattle’s win was built on timing as much as volume. Jani Nyman opened the scoring at 8:29 of the first period on a wrist shot, with Jake O’Brien and Cale Fleury on the setup, and Ty Nelson doubled the lead with just five seconds left in the period. That 19:55 strike mattered because it turned an ordinary one-goal deficit into a chase that followed Vancouver the rest of the night.

The broader numbers fit that story. Seattle finished with 30 shots to Vancouver’s 20, and while the Canucks were committed enough defensively to block 20 attempts, that total also hints at how often they were forced to defend. By the time Logan Morrison scored 42 seconds into the third period, assisted by Frederick Gaudreau and Oscar Fisker Molgaard, the Kraken had stretched the margin to 3-0 and made Vancouver’s task far steeper than it needed to be.

The Canucks finally pushed, but Seattle had the last clean answer

To Vancouver’s credit, the game did not end at 3-0. Braeden Cootes got the Canucks on the board at 11:09 of the third, finishing a play created by Arshdeep Bains and Jonathan Lekkerimaki. That goal gave the game a different shape, because it forced Seattle to defend a lead instead of simply managing one.

When Bains scored at 15:51, with Cootes and Lekkerimaki again supplying the assists, the Canucks had finally found the attacking rhythm that had been missing for long stretches. Lekkerimaki’s two assists stood out as the neatest thread in Vancouver’s comeback attempt, and Bains and Cootes each produced a goal and an assist as the pressure briefly shifted onto Seattle.

But the part that defined the night came next: the Canucks had pulled within 3-2, and Seattle answered at 17:25 through O’Brien, set up by Jacob Melanson. That response was the difference between a tense finish and a fully open one. O’Brien finished with a goal and an assist, Melanson had two assists, and the Kraken’s best sequence of the night turned out to be the one that erased Vancouver’s best stretch.

Special teams and puck management told the sharper truth

Our take: this was not a game Vancouver lost because it lacked effort. The Canucks outhit Seattle 34-22 and won 57.1 percent of the faceoffs, which usually suggests a team had enough touch points in the game to make a result possible. The problem is that those edges did not turn into enough clean offense. Vancouver still managed only 20 shots, and a faceoff advantage means less when the next play is not controlled for long.

The clearest place for the Canucks to improve is puck management under pressure. Vancouver was charged with 23 giveaways, compared with 14 for Seattle, and that is a difficult way to spend a night against a club that already produced the higher shot total. Even with Nikita Tolopilo making 26 saves, Vancouver was defending too often. The special-teams split reinforced that imbalance: the Canucks went 1-for-4 on the power play, while the Kraken were 2-for-4. On a night decided by two goals, that gap was not background noise; it was part of the result.

Seattle, meanwhile, earned the better review but not a flawless one. The Kraken took five penalties, just as Vancouver did, and gave the Canucks four power-play chances, one of which became a goal. They also lost the faceoff battle decisively. Those are manageable issues when a team gets four goals from four different scorers and two multi-point nights from O’Brien and Melanson, but they are still issues. What Seattle did better on this night was the part that tends to matter most: it made fewer mistakes with the puck, generated more shots, and when Vancouver finally made the score interesting, the Kraken answered instead of wobbling. That is why this 4-2 game feels less random than the scoreline might suggest.

Scoring moments

1. 1st · 8:29

   Jani Nyman Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Jake O'Brien (1), Cale Fleury (1)

2. 1st · 19:55

   Ty Nelson Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Jacob Melanson (1), Ryan Lindgren (1)

3. 3rd · 0:42

   Logan Morrison Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Freddy Gaudreau (1), Oscar Fisker Molgaard (1)

4. 3rd · 11:09

   Braeden Cootes Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Arshdeep Bains (1), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (1)

5. 3rd · 15:51

   Arshdeep Bains Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Braeden Cootes (1), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (2)

6. 3rd · 17:25

   Jake O'Brien Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Jacob Melanson (2)