Kraken offense comes from an unexpected source
For Carolina, the story of the season has been a slow offense. The key part of their forward group from the previous season is largely gone and now includes a lot more rookies. In large part, Carolina’s offensive contributions have come from the first forward line of Velveteen Dream, Jimmy Wagner, and rookie Vitek Vitecek. But in this game, which was only Carolina’s ninth win of the season, neither of the team’s two goals included those first-line forwards. The first goal came from defenseman and second-year junior player Michael Lee for his third goal of the season, and was assisted by undrafted rookie Linus Grimstad. The second came from another rookie, Stein Nilsen, and was assisted by two defensemen, Lee and Ambacas Cuddles. Lee’s two points, which earned him the first star, came after scoring only 7 points in the first 32 games of the season.

A valiant goaltending effort in vain
The fact that Carolina’s offense was able to get 42 shots on goal would probably be surprising to someone who only saw the score of this game. If a team takes that many shots, you’d expect them to score more than two goals. But a big reason that this game wasn’t a blowout was the incredible performance by Newfoundland goaltender Cale Amundsen. Amundsen stood on his head in this game, making 40 saves for a save percentage of .952. He’s been performing well this whole season, placing himself as an outside contender for both top goaltender and rookie of the year after facing some of the most shots of any goalie in the league. This game was a particularly good one from the Dutchman, who unfortunately didn’t get the support on offense from his Berserkers teammates.