Seattle Kraken continue their winning streak with 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators, with two goals from Matty Beniers

The Seattle Kraken are finding their rhythm at exactly the right time. Matty Beniers scored twice in a dominant first period, and the Kraken cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night to extend their point streak to six games.

Seattle improved to 17-14-7 on the season and posted a 5-0-1 record during this current stretch. The Kraken are playing their best hockey of the year, getting contributions throughout the lineup and solid goaltending from Philipp Grubauer, who made 24 saves.

Seattle Kraken beat Nashville Predators to rise up in NHL standings with their quick offense

Offense kicked in early for the Sharks as Jamie Oleksiak and Jared McCann quickly scored for Seattle, which dominated the first period and never looked back. The Predators struggled to recover from the early deficit despite cutting it to 3-1 in the second period.

Nashville fell to 18-18-4 and saw their recent success come to an end after winning two straight and five of their previous six games. Predators coach Andrew Brunette didn't mince words about his team's effort.

"We had a lot of passengers tonight," Brunette said. "The schedule got us a little bit, but for us, they were a little bit more desperate, which is sort of unacceptable this time of year."

Beniers opened the scoring at 3:48 of the first period, redirecting Ryker Evans' wrist shot from the point past Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros. The goal set the tone for what would be a dominant opening frame for Seattle.

Oleksiak extended the lead to 2-0 at 10:41, using Ben Meyers as a screen and firing a wrist shot into the top left corner. Just 10 seconds later, Beniers struck again to make it 3-0, poking a loose puck under Saros' glove from the edge of the crease.

"Kaapo made a great play across to Ebs," Beniers explained. "I just went to the net and it was just sitting there, so I just poked it in." The three-goal outburst in less than seven minutes essentially put the game out of reach before the first period ended.

Roman Josi cut the deficit to 3-1 with a power-play goal at 17:34 of the second period, but Nashville couldn't generate enough offense to complete the comeback. Josi acknowledged the team's slow start proved too costly.

"Not a good start, obviously, going down 3-0 early," Josi said. "We need to figure out our starts, but we've seen what we can do and how we can have success." Meanwhile, McCann added an empty-net goal late in the third period to seal the 4-1 final.

Kraken coach Lane Lambert praised his team's complete effort, particularly Grubauer's performance and the penalty kill that shut down Nashville's early opportunities. Seattle's six-game point streak has them climbing the standings and building confidence heading into a crucial stretch of the season.

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