Jordan Eberle leads Seattle Kraken to win with first hat trick in franchise history
Jordan Eberle glanced up at the scoreboard after Buffalo took the lead in the second period and his heart sank. The Sabres had just pulled ahead 2-1, but the Kraken had a 28-10 shot advantage.
It just didn’t add up.
“It’s not only this game,” Eberle said. “You look at how many chances we’ve had throughout the last — dating back to the home stand and then obviously the Edmonton game. I feel like we’ve had a ton and we haven’t capitalized. That definitely gets frustrating.
“I’ve played a long time in this league. You just have to stick with it and as cliche as it is, when you’re not creating those chances that’s when you have to worry. As long as they’re there, sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t. It’s that simple.”
For much of Thursday’s 5-2 win over Buffalo at Climate Pledge Arena, those chances just weren’t going in for Seattle.
The Kraken dominated possession and had plenty of scoring opportunities — see the 38 to 21 shot advantage — but they struggled to find the back of the net. And despite out-playing the Sabres for the vast majority of the game, the Kraken found themselves behind 2-1 late in the second period after a goal from Kyle Okposo.
Enter Eberle, who had scored two goals in the last five games heading into Thursday. Less than 30 seconds after Buffalo took the lead, Eberle erased the deficit with his first goal. He scored again less than 2 minutes into the third to give the Kraken a 3-2 advantage. His third goal — scored 6 minutes later — gave Eberle the first hat trick in franchise history. Hats sailed down from the stands, bouncing and sliding across the ice.
“It’s obviously an honor,” Eberle said. “It’s really cool. I’ve had a couple, but this one for sure — to get the first in Kraken history in this arena — it’s pretty special. When it went in, I definitely thought about it. It’s a neat moment and it’s a part of history. It’s nice to be part of that.”
Perhaps most importantly, the three straight goals from Eberle gave the Kraken some breathing room — and snatched the momentum back from Buffalo.
“At the end of the second, we weren’t necessarily playing our best,” said Jaden Schwartz, who assisted on two of Eberle’s goals and scored an empty netter to produce the final score. “They had a power-play goal to go up 2-1. It was pretty late in the second period. It was really a good shot by (Eberle). That tied it up late and gave us some momentum in the locker room and gave us a good feeling.”
Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said Thursday’s win felt very similar to the team’s last few games, a stretch that included back-to-back losses to the Rangers and Edmonton. Seattle struggled to capitalize on chances in those games, too.
But there was one key difference against Buffalo.
“The puck found the back of the net a little more,” Hakstol said of Thursday’s win. “You wondered if it was going to at some point in time during the second period. … A great period and all of the sudden we’re down by one. It’s tough to leave that period with nothing to show for it. It was nice for Eberle to be able to get that one. That was a big play between him and (Schwartz).”
The Kraken will now head on the road for back-to-back games against Arizona and Vegas before returning home on Nov. 11 to face Anaheim.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 10:55 PM.
