Kraken vs Stars Odds: Dallas Is Favored To Bounce Back in Game 2 Against Surprising Kraken

Gourde’s Overtime Goal Gives the Seattle Kraken the Early Series Lead

Goals were hard to come by in the first-round series for both the Seattle Kraken and Dallas Stars so naturally when the second-round series got underway on Tuesday night, the teams combined for six goals in the first period and that defied the Kraken vs Stars odds in Game 1.

Nobody told the Seattle players that winning on the road is supposed to be challenging come playoff time. The Kraken, playing in the postseason for the first time, are now 4-1 on the road.

Kraken outshot the Stars 44-35 and outhit them 47-19. The 18 Dallas giveaways certainly helped as well. This was done without Jared McCann, a 40-goal scorer in the regular season. McCann is questionable for Game 2. He has missed the last four games.

Joe Pavelski hadn’t played since taking a hard hit from Minnesota defenseman Matt Dumba in Game 1 of the opening-round series. After working his way through concussion protocol, he scored all four of the Dallas goals.

The 38-year-old Pavelski extended his record for playoff goals by an American-born player to 68 and that is eight more than any other U.S.-born player. Pavelski joined Mark Johnson, Kevin Stevens, Tony Amonte and Jake Guentzel as the only U.S.-born players with a four-goal game in the playoffs.

Among the teams still alive in the playoffs, Dallas ranked second on the power play, converting on 37.5% of the man-advantage situations in the first round. Dallas failed to score on its two power plays in the series opener.

Dallas was 4-for-9 on the power play against Seattle during the regular season with the Kraken scoring just once in its eight power plays so the Kraken will try to limit the trips to the penalty box as much as possible.

The Kraken (even) still trail the Stars (-120) in the odds to win the series.

According to the Stanley Cup playoff odds, Dallas saw its odds to win the Stanley Cup title move from +500 to +700 after the Game 1 loss. Seattle’s championship odds went from +1600 to +1100.

A Gourde Night for Kraken

Considering that Seattle is in its second NHL season, it could be a surprise to learn that four of the five goal scorers in the series opener were 30 years old or older. The average age of the five goal scorers for Seattle on Tuesday was 30.6. Even with that, the Kraken vs Stars odds have the visiting Kraken as the underdogs once again.

The 31-year-old Yanni Gourde ended the game with his first career playoff overtime goal.

Despite having 13 goals and eight assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning won back-to-back NHL championships, Gourde was part of the inaugural Kraken team.

After Seattle missed the playoffs a season ago, Gourde is back in his comfort zone by scoring key goals in the postseason.

Gourde led all forwards in ice time in the series opener, playing 22:37.

What Might Have Been

When Morgan Geekie was sent to the penalty box with Dallas already leading 1-0 in the first period, it was a perfect opportunity for the Stars to put the series opener away quickly.

However, Seattle had three of the four shots on goal during the Dallas power play and just 34 seconds after the penalty expired, things started to unravel for the favored Stars when Jaden Schwartz scored the tying goal. The Kraken scored on four consecutive shots on goal against Jake Oettinger, one of the top goalies in the NHL.

Dallas did send the game into overtime thanks to a pair of Pavelski goals in the third period. In overtime, Seattle had 10 of the 14 shots on goal in overtime as Dallas lost at home for just the second time in the 2023 playoffs. The return of Pavelski is just one of the reasons why the Kraken vs Stars odds favors Dallas.

Handicapping the Series

Seattle snapped a three-game losing streak to Dallas with a 5-4 win in overtime on March 21 on a goal by defenseman Adam Larsson and won by the same score on Tuesday.

The teams met three times in less than two weeks in March, with both teams scoring 10 times and each NHL team recording an overtime win on the road.

Each of the four games played this season went over the total. Dallas is 2-1-1 at home against Seattle since the Kraken entered the NHL.

About the only thing that followed the script was that Dallas, the top faceoff team in the playoffs, won 39 of the 67 draws.

Seattle has now killed off 18 of the 20 opposing power plays through the first eight playoff games. Among the eight remaining teams in the playoffs, only Edmonton is converting more frequently on the power play than Dallas.

When looking at the 2022-23 NHL standings, Dallas and Seattle combined for 11 more wins on the road than at home during the regular season. The nine overtime losses at home by Dallas were the second most in the NHL.

Kraken is 30-16 against the spread on the road. Dallas is 20-25 against the NHL betting lines in its 45 home games.

Dallas is 40-23-10 when listed as the favorite by the NHL odds with the Kraken 22-27-4 as the underdog.

Despite the many scoring chances in the series opener, the total has been set at 5.5 for Thursday’s Game 2.

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