Hertl scores twice, Eichel posts four points in Golden Knights' 6-2 win over Kraken

Two late first-period strikes changed the shape

For 13 minutes, Seattle kept the night within reach. Then Vegas landed the first two clean blows. Victor Olofsson opened the scoring at 13:02 of the first period on a deflection, and Hertl doubled the lead at 15:58 with a wrist shot set up by Mark Stone and Eichel.

That quick turn gave Vegas control, and the visitors widened it almost immediately after intermission. Stone scored 1:43 into the second period, Olofsson struck again at 13:07, and Eichel made it 5-0 with an unassisted goal at 19:29. By the end of the second, Seattle had nearly matched Vegas in shots, but not in finish.

The biggest names on the Vegas side drove the separation. Hertl finished with two goals and two assists. Eichel piled up a goal and three assists. Olofsson supplied two goals of his own, and Stone added a goal and an assist. When a team gets that much production from four skaters in one night, a close shot total stops mattering very quickly.

Seattle found two goals, but Vegas kept answering

The Kraken finally broke through at 4:52 of the third period when Shane Wright scored on a wrist shot with assists from Kaapo Kakko and Cale Fleury. It was a useful response after forty difficult minutes, and it briefly gave Seattle something tangible to build on.

That opening did not last long. Hertl restored the five-goal margin at 9:43 of the third, finishing off a play from Ivan Barbashev and Eichel. Seattle added one more at 15:00 through Jared McCann, with Jordan Eberle and Kakko assisting, but the game never truly swung back.

McCann's goal fit the underlying numbers for Seattle's most persistent shooters. He led the Kraken with seven shots, while Wright put four on net and Kakko contributed two assists. Seattle generated 27 shots overall and won 51.5 per cent of the faceoffs, so this was not a night with no puck at all. The problem was that too much of the scoring damage had already been done at the other end.

Our take: the shot count stayed close; the special teams did not

This result reads like a lopsided offensive avalanche, but the team totals show a more specific failure for Seattle. The shots finished 28-27 for Vegas, and the Kraken actually held slight edges in faceoff percentage, hits and blocked shots. The real divide came in conversion and special teams. Vegas went 2-for-5 on the power play and added a shorthanded goal, while Seattle finished 1-for-5 with the man advantage.

The goaltending line tells the same story in blunt numbers. Carter Hart stopped 25 of 27 shots for a .926 save percentage. Seattle used Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer, but the combined save percentage sat at .786 after six goals on 28 shots. On a night when the skaters kept the volume close, that gap was too large to survive.

If Seattle is looking for the cleanest area to improve from this game, discipline is the obvious place to start. The Kraken took nine penalties for 43 minutes, compared with eight penalties for 22 minutes by Vegas. That does not explain every breakdown, and Vegas still had 21 giveaways that Seattle could not fully punish, but it does explain why a competitive shot total turned into a four-goal loss. Vegas gave Seattle some openings; the Golden Knights were simply far sharper in the moments that decided the game.

Scoring moments

1. 1st · 13:02

   Victor Olofsson Goal (3) Deflected, assists: Rasmus Andersson (1), Tomas Hertl (1)

2. 1st · 15:58

   Tomas Hertl Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Mark Stone (2), Jack Eichel (6)

3. 2nd · 1:43

   Mark Stone Goal (2) Snap Shot, assists: Jack Eichel (7)

4. 2nd · 13:07

   Victor Olofsson Goal (4) Snap Shot, assists: Tomas Hertl (2), Trevor Connelly (1)

5. 2nd · 19:29

   Jack Eichel Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: none

6. 3rd · 4:52

   Shane Wright Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Kaapo Kakko (2), Cale Fleury (1)

7. 3rd · 9:43

   Tomas Hertl Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Ivan Barbashev (3), Jack Eichel (8)

8. 3rd · 15:00

   Jared McCann Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Jordan Eberle (2), Kaapo Kakko (3)