SEATTLE — Alex Nedeljkovic put in another hard night’s work, but the same could not be said for his teammates.
The Detroit Red Wings wrapped up a four-game trip Saturday with their first-ever appearance at Climate Pledge Arena. The NHL’s 32nd franchise entered the game at the bottom of the standings, but the Seattle Kraken outworked the Wings to earn a 4-2 victory.
The Wings (25-30-7) head home with two points from the trip and having lost seven of their last eight games.
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Yanni Gourde scored a go-ahead goal when his shot went in off Moritz Seider’s skate with 6:57, giving the Krane three goals in less than six minutes. Gourde added a second goal into an empty net. Final shots were 42-24 to Seattle.
“Ned gave us a chance to find our footing and when your goaltender is playing like that, you have to find a way to reward him,” Sam Gagner said. “For the most part, we weren’t playing the way we want to play.”
The Wings got the lead when Joe Veleno and Taro Hirose scored less than three minutes apart. On the second goal, Lucas Raymond took a pass from Moritz Seider and carried the puck into the right circle and fed it to Tyler Bertuzzi, who was near the net. Bertuzzi fired the puck on net, and Hirose connected on the rebound for his first goal of the season and third point in three games since being called up from the minors.
The Wings didn’t play like a team that wanted to close out, though, and the Kraken was rewarded for continuing to work harder. Adam Larsson drove the puck on net and scored at 7:10, and Jaden Schwartz broke away from Troy Stecher and tied the game at 9:54.
“We were lucky to get out of the first,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “Ned was great. We couldn’t do anything right in the first. Big kills in the second and then got the momentum with the goals. In the third, we were OK, until they scored. In the end, we have to be better.”
Nick Leddy sat out a second straight game as a form of asset protection ahead of a possible trade before Monday’s deadline.
The Wings next play Tuesday, at home against the Flyers.
Nedeljkovic withstands early surge
Nedeljkovic, who made 43 saves Thursday at Vancouver, was just as busy in Seattle. He robbed Morgan Geekie midway through the first period, when Geekie slid to the crease to tap a loose puck only for Nedeljkovic to snatch the shot. That was the Kraken’s 11th shot on goal. The Wings had none on Philipp Grubauer at the time. Gagner finally directed a shot on Seattle’s net past the 11-minute mark.
The Wings managed little offensive-zone time in the first period, and when they did, the shots weren’t high-quality chances. Nedeljkovic made 16 saves in the opening 20 minutes. Grubauer only had to make six.
Momentum grab
The Wings didn’t come out with much more jump in the second period, and instead of attacking, they took penalties. Dylan Larkin went for delay of game at 7:11. Raymond went for holding at 10:09, and Larkin skated back to the box at 11:11 for crosschecking. That left the Wings shorthanded almost five consecutive minutes, and one minute down two skaters. Gagner, Seider and Marc Staal helped kill the 5-on-3 disadvantage, and Raymond created a breakaway coming out of the box. The Wings grabbed the lead at 13:18, when Veleno finished a nice drop feed from Larkin. Hirose followed up with a conversion 20 seconds into a power play.
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Kraken ex-Wings
Riley Sheahan skated on the Kraken’s fourth line. He was originally drafted by the Wings at No. 21 in 2010, and played for the Wings from 2013-14 to 2017-18. He infamously went the entire 2016-17 season without scoring a goal until the finale, when he scored twice in what was the farewell game at Joe Louis Arena. The Wings unloaded Sheahan the following October, sending him to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a minor trade. Sheahan, 30, played for the Penguins, Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers and Edmonton Oilers before joining the Kraken on a one-year, $850,000 contract last fall.
Dennis Cholowski, the Wings’ first-round pick, at No. 20, is also a member of the organization. The Kraken selected Cholowski from the Wings’ expansion list last summer, lost him on waivers to the Washington Capitals, only to claim him when the Capitals waived him. Cholowski wasn’t in the lineup, though; he’s minus-4 in seven appearances.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.