Jared McCann scores twice as Kraken roll to 8-1 win over Coyotes

SEATTLE - The Seattle Kraken inched closer to clinching a playoff berth as Jared McCann scored a pair of goals in leading the team to an 8-1 rout of the floundering Arizona Coyotes on Monday night.

"It's huge. It was a full team effort tonight," McCann said. We felt like we had a great forecheck. We were much better than we were against L.A. (on Saturday), so obviously a good sign and we need to continue to build off that."

In his 500th career NHL game, McCann's two goals marked his 36th and 37th goals of the season as his career-best campaign continues to roll along.

McCann is the first player to 100 points in franchise history and the first 30-goal scorer in team history. He could still reach the 40-goal plateau with six games left in the season. 

In addition to his scoring acumen, McCann's presence on the penalty kill has helped bolster that unit the second half of the season. Seattle has the third-best penalty kill in the NHL since January 15 entering Monday night's game against the Coyotes.

"He's coming up big for us," said winger Daniel Sprong, who had a pair of assists in the win. "He's a threat offensively. He has the shot and he's dangerous every time on the ice and you know, his 500th game, it's good to see that he had a night like that. He deserves it."

Seattle now has 92 points with six games left in their season. The Winnipeg Jets sit in eighth place at 89 points while the Calgary Flames (87) and Nashville Predators (84) are the first team's on the outside of the race. The Jets can reach as many as 99 points if they win out. The Flames can reach 97 points and the Predators 96 points. If the Kraken can get to 95 points, that could easily be enough to clinch a playoff spot. 

The Kraken still have two games left with Arizona, and games against the Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks. That's four out of the final six games against non-playoff teams.

"Every two points is big," head coach Dave Hakstol said.

McCann and Jordan Eberle each scored goals in the opening period before the Kraken broke the game open in the middle frame.

As the Coyotes won a face-off on a Seattle power play, Matty Beniers sprinted to the blue line to keep a clearance attempt from Arizona in the offensive zone. The effort paid off for Seattle as the puck circled to Daniel Sprong for a slap pass that was deflected by goaltender Ivan Prosvetov by Eberle to give the Kraken a 1-0 lead.

Beniers then helped create the second goal of the night as well. With Yanni Gourde in the penalty box, Beniers managed to win the puck off Travis Boyd to create a short-handed rush. Beniers crossed the blue line and set the puck for McCann, who snapped a wrist shot by Prosvetov for a 2-0 advantage.

"Matty made a great play on the wall to kind of create the turnover and the drop pass in the zone, I just tried to just tried to get it to the net as quick as I could," McCann said.

A laser cross-ice pass from rookie Matias Maccelli to Lawson Crouse cleanly beat Philipp Grubauer as the Coyotes got a goal back less than five minutes into the second period.

Maccelli is one of the few forwards in the Calder Trophy chase with Beniers as the best rookie in the NHL this season. Maccelli is the only forward to post a higher points per game average than Beniers this season, but he missed 16 games due to a lower body injury. Maccelli has 45 points with 10 goals and 35 assists in 60 games for Arizona.

The Coyotes hung around a bit longer before the Kraken pulled away. Carson Soucy scored just his third goal of the season as he took a strong cross-ice pass from Sprong and ripped the puck through Prosvetov's legs to make it a 3-1 game. It was the first goal for Soucy since Dec. 20 against the St. Louis Blues.

A bouncing puck then found McCann three minutes later as he got on a rush with Eberle. McCann used a toe drag to maneuver around Juuso Välimäki and snapped a shot off the inside of the left post for his 37th goal of the season.

"I think we did a good job just kind of foot on the gas tonight, closing out a win," Soucy said. "It was tight there for a bit so we did a good job just kind of focusing on what we do and just kind of wear them down at the end."

Alex Wennberg found Will Borgen for a clean look between the circles that beat Prosvetov early in the third period to further extend the lead. The goal was Borgen's third of the season and a new career-high.

Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his 19th goal of the year with a shot from a sharp angle near the goal line that slipped through Prosvetov to make it a 6-1 game.

Then the game started to get a big ugly. Liam O'Brien challenged Jamie Oleksiak to a fight with eight minutes left to play. Soucy took a hit from Crouse that led to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Crouse. 

Josh Brown popped Gourde in the face after a whistle as Ryan Donato jumped the Arizona defenseman to stick up for Gourde. Brown got a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute game misconduct and was tossed from the game.

Morgan Geekie directed a rebounded slap shot from Gourde by Prosvetov on the ensuing power play for a 7-1 lead. Then as Donato scored one final goal with seven seconds left, Connor Mackey ran Sprong into the left post of the net with a shove as Donato against jumped to a teammate's defense.

"I think it's a stupid play. I understand I hit him late in the second. OK, s--- happens. But if he wants to come after me, he can hit me clean in the game. Don't do it there at the end of the game," Sprong said of Mackey. "But it's been a long year for them and they just lost 8-1 so I think if roles were reversed, we'd be pissed off too, but I don't think that's the time and place to do it."

Sprong said he owed Donato a dinner for his effort.

Philipp Grubauer made 20 saves on 21 shots on a rather uneventful night for the Seattle goaltender. 

Prosvetov allowed eight goals on 32 shots on a dismal night for the Coyotes backstop. The AHL call-up has allowed 14 goals over his last two starts for Arizona.

The Coyotes have now lost eight straight games.

The two teams twice more in the next week, including a return engagement Thursday night at home. The Kraken makes a quick trip up to Vancouver on Tuesday night to face the Canucks while the Coyotes remain in Seattle ahead of Thursday's rematch.

"We're going to come back and just kind of start with the same mindset we had at the start of this game," Soucy said. "We're going to focus on what we do well, less on them. If they kind of start it again, like I said, it's important to stick up for teammates, but we won't be looking for it."

Notes: Forward André Burakovsky returned to practice on Monday for the first time since sustaining a lower body injury in a Feb. 7 game against the New York Islanders.

Burakovsky has missed 26 games for the Kraken following Monday night's win over the Coyotes.

"That’s another step in the right direction for him. There’s no large revelation there. It’s just the next step in the process for him," head coach Dave Hakstol said.

Burakovsky was wearing a red no-contact jersey in his first workout with the team in nearly two months. He was back skating individually in early March and appeared on track for a much quicker return to action. Instead, general manager Ron Francis told The Seattle Times he had a bit of a setback that delayed his timeline.

Burakovsky led the team in points when he was sidelined. He had 39 points on 13 goals and 26 assists in 49 games played with Seattle after signing with the team as a free agent last summer.

"We’ve missed him, definitely. For sure missed his energy," McCann said. "We hope to have him back soon."

– With the victory, the Kraken set an NHL record for the largest in total jump from year one to year two of a franchise's existence. Seattle now has 15 more victories than they did during their inaugural campaign, surpassing the 14-win increase from the Oakland Seals from the 1967-68 season to the 1968-69 season.

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