“You’ve just got to be ready to play,” said Montour, who drew an assist on the lone Kraken goal. “Yeah, we’re in the mix. We should be excited. We’re well rested. I thought we had a solid week of practice. Yeah, they’re tough teams and it’s tough on the road to start. But obviously we didn’t show up for it.”
The St. Louis goals weren’t the result of close-range tip-ins as the Stars managed. But they did generate most through hard work down deep, starting with Holloway’s first period strike on a one-timer from the left circle after a nice Jonatan Berggren pass from behind the net.
Kyrou’s goal resulted off a big numbers rush in which he and Pavel Buchnevich got in deep and completed a nifty two-way passing sequence. And then, as that goal was still being announced, a net front scramble resulted in Holloway poking the puck home from the crease with three or four Kraken defenders standing in the immediate vicinity.
Something else that looked awfully similar to the prior night was the Kraken needing just under half of the opening period to register their first shot on goal. In Dallas, they’d needed just more than seven minutes from the start of the game.
Prior to that initial Kraken shot and right after the opening goal, Kraken defender Adam Larsson got belted by Nathan Walker along the side boards and ended up partway onto the Blues bench. It was an example of the Blues laying on the body and outhitting the Kraken throughout.
The visitors did recover somewhat before the end of the period, unleashing a five-shot barrage in just a couple of minutes at backup Blues netminder Joel Hoefer. Kakko popped home a rebound off one of those shots to tie the game up. But further Kraken chances in close were rare indeed.
“Yeah, I think our whole team was always looking to make one more pass,” Kakko said. “I feel like that’s what happened the whole game.”