Tkachuk, Gaudreau lead Flames past Kraken in 1st game since COVID outbreak
Former Calgary captain Mark Giordano scores for Seattle against former team
Matthew Tkachuk scored the go-ahead goal with 2:26 left and had two assists as the Calgary Flames beat the Seattle Kraken 6-4 on Thursday night in their first game in nearly three weeks.
"Even with everything going on, there's no reason why we couldn't come in here and beat a team that played last night," Tkachuk said.
It was the Flames' first game since Dec. 11 due to a COVID-19 outbreak. Twenty members of the team and coach Darryl Sutter were among 33 Calgary personnel who tested positive for the coronavirus during the club's 19 days off.
WATCH | Tkachuk pockets winner as Flames defeat Kraken:
The rust showed, as Sutter noted: "I'm not making an excuse here, but if you had 19 days off you wouldn't be very good out there."
The Flames were a little chippy, with play stopping several times to break up scrums, and weren't as tight on defense as goaltender Jacob Markstrom might have hoped as the teams combined for four goals in the final four minutes.
"I think that we thought it would be a lot better, but we found a way to win," Tkachuk said. "And that was the most important thing, getting back in the win column here. It was ugly, especially late — that's not the type of team we are, giving up four — but we found a way. I guess that's all that matters now."
Former Flames captain Mark Giordano had a goal and two assists in his first game against his old team, and Calle Jarnkrok added a goal and two assists for the Kraken. Yanni Gourde and Jared McCann also scored for Seattle, which got two assists from Colin Blackwell.
WATCH | Seattle's Giordano scores goal against former team:
Giordano walked away disappointed after the Kraken lost for the seventh time in eight games.
"At the end of the day, you can't keep looking at silver linings," the captain said. "It's 32 or 31 games into the season. Up to a certain point we're doing the right things. We have to find ways to win games. I don't think anyone's overwhelmed us in this league. We have to turn it the other way where we're finding ways to win games instead of being on the other end of it."
Giordano opened the scoring at 5:48 with a slap shot from the high slot off a pass from Blackwell after Jarnkrok chased down the puck behind the net. The Kraken captain, selected in the expansion draft this summer, played 15 years for the Flames, serving as captain since 2013.
Giordano stuck it to his old team again nine seconds into the second period when he gathered in the opening faceoff, skated deep into Calgary's end and found McCann in the slot. McCann misfired, but Jarnkrok put the rebound past Jacob Markstrom for a 2-1 lead.
Gaudreau tied it at 2 with his 12th goal of the season, a power-play rocket that beat Driedger glove side, bounced off the right post, then ricocheted off the left and into the net.
Gourde chased Blackwell's pass to the crease and pushed it past Markstrom to tie it at 3 with 4:39 gone in the third.
Mangiapane and McCann exchanged goals late in the period before Tkachuk's game-winner at 17:34. Hanifin, who also had an assist, added an empty-netter.
