Kraken can't end back-to-back trend in loss to Stars

Kate Shefte, The Seattle Times on Nov 9, 2025

Published in Hockey

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A night after a spirited overtime victory in St. Louis, the Seattle Kraken dropped yet another back-to-back finale in Dallas. They put up a fight this time. Kraken goaltender Matt Murray (22 saves) and Stars counterpart Casey DeSmith (30 saves) were both stellar through two scoreless periods of Sunday’s taut 2-1 game.

Seattle (7-4-4) hasn’t won the second game of a back-to-back in 16 attempts, which includes the entirety of last season. The last time the Kraken won the second game was March 5, 2024, when Dave Hakstol was head coach.

Forward Berkly Catton appeared in his 10th Kraken game of the season, which means the Kraken committed to burning the first year of his entry-level contract. At 19 years old, Catton was “slide” eligible if he played fewer than 10 games, meaning his team could return him to his junior club and avoid using a year of his contract.

When Shane Wright was 18 in the fall of 2022-23, the will-they-or-won’t-they lasted until December, when Wright left for World Juniors. He was with the Kraken the entire time but only played eight games.

With Catton, the beginning looked like more of the same. He was a healthy scratch the first five game of this season. But the 10-game benchmark passed without much fanfare, and a lineup opening played a part. Catton has been on the playing roster ever since franchise leading scorer Jared McCann exited with an injury Oct. 20. McCann is “not close yet,” according to coach Lane Lambert on Thursday.

The Kraken aren’t forced to hold onto Catton, who captained the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs last season and put up 109 points. They can’t assign him to the American Hockey League, in keeping with a longstanding agreement with the Canadian Hockey League. But they can send him back to Spokane.

There’s another benchmark to eye going forward — a skater who reaches 40 games spent on the active roster, even if they are scratched, has accrued a season toward arbitration eligibility and then unrestricted free agency.

The Pittsburgh Penguins bought themselves more time by again scratching defenseman 19-year-old Harrison Brunicke — also sitting at nine games this season — on Sunday against the Los Angeles Kings. So Catton became the sixth slide-eligible player this season to make it to 10 games, per PuckPedia.

Several of Catton’s 2024 draft classmates are among the group — Calgary defenseman Zayne Parekh, San Jose defenseman Sam Dickinson, Anaheim winger Beckett Sennecke. Two 2025 draft picks, 11th overall pick Ben Kindel (Pittsburgh) and top overall pick Matthew Schaefer (New York Islanders), hit the ground running and soared past 10 games.

Catton played just 8:48 against the Stars on Sunday, the lowest total on the team.

Goaltender Murray got his second start of the season. He’s only been called upon in the second game of back-to-backs and, clearly, is 0-2. Kraken No. 1 goaltender Joey Daccord didn’t make the road trip after absorbing five goals of a 6-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday. He went on injured reserve with an upper-body injury this weekend.

Winger Jaden Schwartz scored on a beauty of a tip, but the 1-0, first-period Kraken lead lasted only 1:09. Schwartz scored the Kraken only goal in Murray’s other outing against the Capitals as well.

Kaapo Kakko tripped Finnish countryman Miro Heiskanen 17 seconds after Schwartz scored and Seattle’s sinking penalty kill let in another goal. They’ve allowed a power-play goal in three straight games. After Saturday night’s slate, the Kraken PK dropped to second-to-last in the NHL (69.4%).

That said, Seattle killed off Dallas’ next two man advantages. The Stars have the third-best power play in the league (32.7%).

Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston had the power-play goal and teammate Tyler Seguin scored on a breakaway with 34 seconds left in the first period. Seguin flipped the puck through Kraken defenseman Ryan Lindgren’s skates and went one-on-one with Murray, who dropped. Seguin backhanded a shot past him.

The Kraken outshot the Stars 15-7 in the second period and were buzzing were final few minutes. Chandler Stevenson, who sent Saturday’s game to overtime with less than two seconds to spare, came close. On the same shift, former Star Mason Marchment went down to one knee to try and score in his return to Dallas, but DeSmith turned that bid aside too.

Seattle put nine third-period shots on DeSmith and defenseman Vince Dunn pounced on a final rebound, but the horn sounded and the game was over. There would be no last-second heroics this time.

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