Kraken vs. Flames: Vince Dunn's Three-Point Night Spoils Calgary's Final Saddledome Opener in a 6-1 Rout

Calgary fans showed up loud for the last season opener the Scotiabank Saddledome will ever host. The Flames move into Scotia Place next season, so this was supposed to be the start of a long, sentimental goodbye. The Seattle Kraken were not interested in being polite guests.

Vince Dunn had a goal and two assists, Jared McCann piled up three assists and the Kraken rolled to a 6-1 win over the Flames on Thursday night in the season opener for both teams. Matty Beniers and Kaapo Kakko each had a goal and an assist, Jordan Eberle, Frederick Gaudreau and Chandler Stephenson also scored, and Joey Daccord made 24 saves while chipping in an assist of his own.

"I've never really been at the Saddledome when it's been that loud, to be honest, right from the start," Dunn said.

Thirty-Two Seconds to Quiet the Barn

The crowd got about nine minutes of hope. Then Matvei Gridin was called for holding at 9:04, and Seattle needed six seconds of power-play time to strike. McCann's shot from the top of the right circle hit Eberle in front, the puck dropped at his feet, and the veteran tapped it in at 9:10.

Thirty-two seconds later, Dunn wound up from the point and fired a slap shot through traffic that beat Dustin Wolf just inside the right post. It was 2-0 before the first period was even half over.

Seattle coach Lane Lambert did not overthink the power-play goal. "I don't see a necessity to really make a bunch of plays off the face-off of a power play," he said. "Get pucks to the net and typically you can outnumber them at the net and that's what happened."

Gaudreau added a backbreaker with 30 seconds left in the first, taking a cross-ice feed from Kakko and snapping it over Wolf's glove into the top corner. According to the AP, that extended Gaudreau's point streak against the Flames to six straight games. Some players just have a favorite opponent.

Wolf Keeps the Door Cracked

To Calgary's credit, the second period was a stalemate, and Wolf was a big reason. The AP noted he misread a deflection off the back boards late in the period but recovered to stretch out and glove Eberle's shot, robbing him of a second goal. The Flames spent plenty of time on the penalty kill, with Joel Farabee going to the box twice, and Kevin Bahl and Jacob Melanson traded roughing minors at 7:37, but Seattle could not add to the lead. Down 3-0 entering the third, the Flames at least had a pulse.

That pulse lasted a little over three minutes.

The Turning Point: 51 Seconds That Ended It

Early in the third, Calgary defenseman Zach Whitecloud clipped skates with partner Yan Kuznetsov and went down, and Stephenson was gone. He went in alone and tucked a backhand through Wolf's pads at 3:13, with Dunn and Daccord picking up the assists. A goalie assist on a breakaway goal is the kind of thing that makes a box score look like a typo.

Then, just 51 seconds later, McCann dropped a pass to Beniers, who slapped it past Wolf at 4:04 for a 5-0 lead. That was the ballgame, and Whitecloud did not mince words afterward.

"They had their push and obviously we didn't do enough of what is our identity to get out of it, so it's on us," Whitecloud said. "It's embarrassing."

Ryan Strome spoiled Daccord's shutout bid at 16:35 with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle, assisted by Yegor Sharangovich and Connor Zary. The Kraken answered 26 seconds later, when Kakko chipped a rebound one-handed past Wolf at 17:01 for the 6-1 final.

Star Watch

Vince Dunn: A goal and two assists in 20:37 to lead the way from the back end.

Jared McCann: Three assists, on Seattle's first, fifth and sixth goals, in 17:54.

Matty Beniers: A goal and an assist, plus the knockout punch early in the third. "It was a great win," he said. "A lot of fun to play in there. It was kind of rocking."

Kaapo Kakko: A goal and an assist with a plus-3 rating.

Joey Daccord: 24 saves on 25 shots and the secondary assist on Stephenson's breakaway.

Dustin Wolf: 26 saves on 32 shots for Calgary, and his glove save on Eberle was one of the best stops of the night.

Stats That Matter

• 20-9: Seattle's edge in blocked shots. The Kraken threw bodies in front of everything.
• 8-2: Seattle's advantage in takeaways.
• 1 for 5: Seattle's power play, and the one goal came six seconds into the advantage. Calgary went 0 for 1.
• 32-25: Seattle's edge in shots on goal.
• 32 and 51 seconds: The gaps between Seattle's first two goals and between its fourth and fifth. Quick strikes decided this one.

What It Means

Seattle is 1-0-0 and heads to Edmonton on Saturday after a near-flawless road start, achieved without forwards Matthew Samoskevich (upper body) and Jake O'Brien (lower body). Dunn liked what he saw from the jump. "It's good to see us start that way," he said. "It's good to get the confidence rolling." Eberle, the veteran winger who opened the scoring, was already thinking about the bigger picture. "There's always video and there's always things you can improve on," he said.

Calgary starts 0-1-0 and visits Vancouver on Saturday. The Flames played without Jonathan Huberdeau (hip), and Strome sounded like a player who knows how thin the margin is for this group.

"Obviously super disappointing," Strome said. "We had a good start and then kind of just unraveled. We're a team that can't really make any mistakes."

Closing Take

The Saddledome has seen a lot of hockey, and it will get one more winter of it. But on opening night, the only farewell tour that mattered belonged to the visitors, who waved goodbye to Calgary's hopes before the first intermission. Release the Kraken, indeed. Strome put it best: "So, I mean, that one stings."

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.