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Kraken ride 5-game win streak into Buffalo

The Seattle Kraken will look to extend their winning streak to six when they visit the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

The Kraken posted their second shutout of the season with a 4-0 win over the host Montreal Canadiens on Monday. The Sabres' two-game winning streak ended with a 4-0 loss to the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.

Eeli Tolvanen, Daniel Sprong and Vince Dunn scored first-period goals to stake Seattle to a 3-0 lead before Matty Beniers capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with just over a minute to play.

"We had a great start to the game," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "We played a really good first period; you know the way that you want to come out on the road. And we were able to not only build the lead, but we played a really good first period, so that set us up."

Yanni Gourde had two assists while Beniers, Tolvanen and Dunn each had one for the Kraken. Martin Jones (19-5-3, 2.78 GAA) made 21 saves for his second shutout of the season and the 27th of his career.

Seattle has outscored the opposition 26-8 during their five-game winning streak, with the most recent four wins coming during a season-long seven-game road trip.

Andre Burakovsky (11 goals, 22 assists) has a team-high 33 points, one ahead of Jordan Eberle (nine goals, team-high 23 assists) and Beniers (15 goals, 17 assists). Jared McCann leads the team with 19 goals to go along with eight assists, while Dunn has seven goals and 21 assists.

The Sabres were blanked for the first time this season after winning each of their past two games in overtime -- at Washington last Tuesday and at home against Minnesota on Saturday.

Philadelphia's Zack MacEwen, Joel Farabee and Noah Cates all had first-period goals before Wade Allison capped the scoring at the 1:56 mark of the third period in Monday's loss.

Craig Anderson (7-6-1, 2.70 GAA) made 34 saves for the Sabres.

"Our first 20 minutes was ... it was probably the worst period we've played all year," Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo said. "You try and learn from it. We tried to get going in the second and third. I just think the emotional toll of that first period was a little bit too much for us to come back from. Just disappointing with how we've been playing. Just a little bit of immaturity on our part, I think."

The Sabres' Tage Thompson is the league's third-leading goal scorer with 31 to go along with 25 assists for a team-high 56 points. Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin is well behind in second with 44 points (12 goals to go with a team-high 32 assists) -- though he is in the top four among all defensemen in all three categories. Alex Tuch has 18 goals and 25 assists while Jeff Skinner's 39 points (17 goals, 22 assists) are fourth on the team.

The Kraken dominated the visiting Sabres from start to finish early in the season, winning 5-1 on Oct. 25.

Jamie Oleksiak and Morgan Geekie scored in the first period before Sprong made it 3-0 early in the second period.

After Dylan Cozens pulled Buffalo to within 3-1 midway through the second period, McCann scored with 3:53 left in the period. Beniers' power-play goal capped the scoring midway through the third period.

--Field Level Media

Updated January 10, 2023