Jordan Eberle finds scoring groove as Kraken get much-needed win vs. Blue Jackets

Amid a season of offensive challenges for the Kraken, the scoring drop-off by Jordan Eberle had loomed larger than most. 

So, the Kraken were delighted to see Eberle pick up a couple of goals and a trio of points before Sunday night’s game was even one period done. That early outburst proved just enough to propel the Kraken to a needed 4-2 victory over a tired-looking Columbus Blue Jackets squad that was on the final leg of back-to-back games. 

Jared McCann also scored in the first period, reaching the 20-goal mark for his third consecutive Kraken season. Columbus had yielded three third-period goals to the Vancouver Canucks before losing in overtime Saturday, meaning the Blue Jackets had been outscored 7-0 over roughly two frames of action once the Kraken were done with them by first intermission. 

And that early Kraken flurry had to sustain them the rest of the way as both teams generated little in the way of opportunities until Columbus got going with a pair of third-period Yegor Chinakhov goals.

Kraken goalie Joey Daccord lost his shutout bid with 12:48 to go in regulation when Chinakhov beat him short side with a wrist shot from the left circle. Then, with 4:02 to go, Chinakhov was allowed to waltz into the slot, where he again beat Daccord with a wrist shot.

But Brandon Tanev scored an empty-net goal to seal it in the closing seconds with Columbus netminder Daniil Tarasov pulled for an extra attacker.

The Blue Jackets weren’t helped offensively by rookie forward Adam Fantilli, the No. 3 overall pick in last summer’s draft, leaving the game about 13 minutes into the middle frame with what appeared to be a potentially serious foot injury. Fantilli got tangled up with McCann, whose skate inadvertently came down on the back of his foot near his Achilles.

Fantilli reacted in immediate pain and hobbled off the ice and down the tunnel with what the Blue Jackets later termed a lower-body injury.

Regardless of whether their opponents looked fatigued and undermanned at times, the Kraken badly needed two points from this outcome ahead of finishing the pre-All-Star break on the road Tuesday against San Jose. They began the night four points behind both the Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues in the wild-card race after blowing a two-goal lead to the Blues on Friday and losing in overtime. 

For Eberle, his two goals to bookend the Kraken’s three in Sunday’s first period helped vault his season’s total to nine after he began the month with just four. Four of his five goals this month have come in the last 10 games and are a byproduct of strong line work between him, McCann and newcomer Tomas Tatar.

Eberle has actually been on a points tear the past two weeks, picking up 10 in his last eight games with McCann and Tatar often involved in the plays that generated them.

Sunday’s game was scoreless with just more than seven minutes to go in the first when Eberle redirected an Oliver Bjorkstrand shot near the net front for his first goal. Just over three minutes later, Tatar fed a pass to Eberle, who tossed the puck to McCann racing down the left side. 

McCann took the pass and snapped the puck past Tarasov on the short side, giving him a career-high six-game points streak to go with his latest goal milestone. But the Kraken weren’t yet done, going on the power play moments later and watching Eberle complete a goal mouth scramble by picking the puck up and neatly backhanding it by Tarasov for the 3-0 lead.

McCann drew an assist on the play, further continuing the top line’s revival. 

For Eberle, one of the slower starts to a season of his career came in the final year of a contract that’s seen him reach the 20-goal mark each of his last two Kraken campaigns. Eberle also managed 63 points a season ago but was well off that pace before January began. 

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