Kraken open key road trip with loss to turmoil-plagued Blackhawks

CHICAGO — There was some fleeting solace for the Kraken here in knowing that as rough as their early season has gone at times it’s been nothing as miserable as their Tuesday night opponent has faced.

The Chicago Blackhawks, long a decorated “Original Six” franchise, have taken a hard fall on and off the ice in recent years and spent much of Tuesday defusing their most recent scandal, this one involving veteran forward Corey Perry. That distraction should have given the Kraken a leg up in this road opener, but instead, their early woes and somewhat shaky goaltending continued in a 4-3 loss to one of the league’s worst teams.

Spokane native Tyler Johnson put the Blackhawks up for good early in the second period with a short-side wrist shot that found its way past goalie Philipp Grubauer from the right circle. Not long after, a rebound off a wraparound effort was banged home by MacKenzie Entwhistle with Grubauer down and out and the Kraken were in a hole they couldn’t escape.

Tye Kartye got the Kraken back within a goal with 13:09 to play in regulation on a snap shot from the left circle that trickled past goalie Petr Mrazek. The Kraken then were given a 5-on-3 power play for 63 seconds in the final six minutes, but they failed to get a goal and finished the night 0 for 5 with the man advantage.

The Kraken held a 36-23 edge in shots, but Mrazek stood tall when needed.

Grubauer was making his first start in more than two weeks after suffering a lower-body injury. He allowed four goals on the first 15 shots he faced — two of them unscreened from a distance — as the Kraken fell to 8-10-5.

Matty Beniers and Alex Wennberg had scored late in the first period to draw the Kraken even after goals 1:29 apart midway through by Boris Katchouk and Jason Dickinson had given Chicago a 2-0 lead.

The Blackhawks entered with a 6-13-0 record and tied with San Jose for a league-low 22 points — but with the Sharks having played three more games. They’d lost six of their last seven and had spent the week engulfed in drama surrounding Perry, 38, who was dismissed from the team for undisclosed reasons before finally being officially terminated and waived Tuesday for the purpose of buying out his contract.

Given the Blackhawks have spent the past two years dealing with fallout from their former front office’s attempted cover-up of an alleged 2010 sexual assault of one of their playoff reservists — a onetime Everett Silvertips player named Kyle Beach — by a member of their support staff, the latest secrecy has been another public relations disaster for the organization. Social media has been rampant with unfounded speculation about why Perry was sent away — dragging other players and even their family members into conspiracy theories that team general manager Kyle Davidson termed “inaccurate” and “disgusting” in addressing the situation Tuesday afternoon.

Davidson insisted other Chicago players had no involvement in the incident leading to Perry’s dismissal and weren’t even told why he’d been sent way. An internal investigation by the team is said to have found Perry engaged in “unacceptable” conduct that violated team policies “intended to promote professional and safe work environments.”

None of that made for a particularly comfortable environment for the home team ahead of Tuesday night’s contest, though the Blackhawks withstood an initial Kraken barrage ahead of Katchouk opening the scoring midway through the first by firing home a rebound with an open net staring him in the face.

Fewer than 90 seconds later, Davidson one-timed a slapper from the high slot that beat Grubauer cleanly.

The Kraken looked to have righted things in the final six minutes of the frame with Beniers converting his own rebound to get his team on the board. Wennberg then tied it with 37 seconds to go, brilliantly holding the puck and waiting out goalie Mrazek until skating around him and depositing it into a vacated net.

But Johnson’s goal early in the second set the Kraken back on their heels anew. Jordan Eberle had a chance to close the gap to a lone goal late in the middle frame, but this time Mrazek stepped up with a sparkling kick save to keep the home side up by two at intermission.