HELSINKI, Finland - The Kraken’s trip to the NHL Global Series opened with a scene Kaapo Kakko won’t soon forget, even if the result turned sour fast.
More than 4,700 miles from Seattle, the 12,523 fans inside the three-decade-old arena gave the designated home team a real lift. Kraken sweaters were everywhere, and plenty of them belonged to Finnish fans who had come to see one of their own. Kakko was part of that atmosphere, too, with the night taking on extra meaning when Finnish heavy metal vocalist Noora Louhimo delivered a stirring version of “Maamme” before puck drop.
“It was something special,” Kakko said of playing the debut game of the NHL Global Series in front of an arena filled mostly with his compatriots. “The start there was something we usually don’t have.
The (Finnish) national anthem and things like that. The game was not what we wanted.
But yeah, nice for me.”
The night belonged to Carolina once the puck dropped. The Hurricanes, the reigning Stanley Cup champions, controlled the game and skated away with a 4-1 win behind goals from Nikolaj Ehlers and Sebastian Aho in the first period, Juuso Valimaki in the second and Aho again in the third. They also finished with a 30-13 edge in shots.
Seattle’s only breakthrough came late, when Freddy Gaudreau scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season 13:15 into the third period. It was the lone Kraken shot of that final frame.
The game swung in a 66-second burst in the first period. Ehlers scored from the right point through traffic about 12 minutes in, and the Kraken challenged for goaltender interference.
The call stood, Seattle was hit with a delay of game penalty for the failed challenge, and Carolina quickly cashed in. K’Andre Miller sent a long pass to the net front, where Aho deflected it past Philipp Grubauer for a 2-0 lead.
“Our coaches thought it was goalie interference,” Kakko said of the initial Ehlers goal. “I mean, you’ve got to try sometimes. It might end up being no goal and then it’s a different game.”