Chris Driedger made 33 saves against his former team as the Seattle Kraken snapped the Florida Panthers' record-tying home winning streak with a 4-1 victory on Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Jordan Eberle scored twice, and Ryan Donato and Jamie Oleksiak (empty-netter) added one goal each as Seattle ended Florida's season-opening 11-game win streak.
That matches the NHL record set by the 1963-1964 Chicago Blackhawks for the longest home winning streak to open a season.
Driedger went 21-8-4 with the Panthers the past two years, but this was just his third start and his first win with the expansion Kraken.
Patric Hornqvist scored for the Panthers, who lost a home regular-season game for the first time since April 22, against the Carolina Hurricanes, a span of 15 consecutive contests without a loss.
Panthers rookie goalie Spencer Knight -- whose presence in the organization allowed Florida to expose Driedger in July's expansion draft -- made 23 saves.
Seattle led 2-1 after a wild first period.
Moments after Driedger stopped a short-handed breakaway by former teammate Jonathan Huberdeau, the Kraken went on the attack.
Joonas Donskoi split two Panthers defenders and made a lateral pass to Eberle, who scored on a power-play, one-timer from the doorstep. There were just three seconds left on the man advantage when Seattle cracked the code.
Florida tied the score on Hornqvist's deflection of a long shot from MacKenzie Weegar.
Seattle then regained the lead -- but only after Driedger made another save, this time on Panthers defenseman Lucas Carlsson.
Once in their offensive zone, the Kraken's Oleksiak had his shot blocked. However, the puck bounced fortuitously right to Donato, whose shot from the point went in off Knight's right pad.
The Kraken nearly made it 3-1 in the second period as Marcus Johansson fired a shot that hit the left post and bounced off the back of Knight's head -- without going into the net.
Eberle, though, did make it 3-1 as he used his backhand to lift a rebound shot over a sprawled Knight. Yanni Gourde got the primary assist.
Oleksiak's empty-netter with 3:25 left iced Seattle's victory.
--Field Level Media
Seattle | Florida | |
Jordan Eberle 2 | Points | Patric Hornqvist 1 |
Jordan Eberle 2 | Goals | Patric Hornqvist 1 |
Joonas Donskoi 2 | Assists | Joe Thornton 1 |
Jordan Eberle 1 | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Chris Driedger .971 | Save Percentage | Spencer Knight .885 |
Chris Driedger 33 | Saves | Spencer Knight 23 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Seattle | 27 | 4 | 1-2 | 1-1 | 4 | 36 |
Florida | 34 | 1 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 6 | 14 |