Donato scores in fourth straight, Kraken topple Blues 5-2

SEATTLE (AP) — Ryan Donato continued his hot streak of goal scoring and got the Seattle Kraken off to the start they needed against an opponent they’ve struggled with in their first two seasons.

Donato scored in his fourth straight game, Carson Soucy, Daniel Sprong and Jared McCann scored in Seattle’s three-goal second period, and the Kraken beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Tuesday night.

Seattle won consecutive games for the first time in nearly three weeks, snapped the Blues’ four-game win streak and beat St. Louis for the first time in the Kraken’s two seasons.

“I think we see when we play the right way, were going to get our chances, and if we capitalize on them it’s hard to beat us,” Donato said.

Donato’s seventh goal of the season came at 16:27 of the first period and the four-game goal streak is the longest of his career. Donato split St. Louis defenders during a change, collected a long stretch pass from Adam Larsson and beat Blues goalie Thomas Greiss.

“For me, it definitely is sweet. I think it’s exciting,” Donato said. “But honestly at the end of the day, I think everybody in here can agree that it’s more about winning. So for me to be a part of that win, it’s definitely a good feeling.”

Soucy scored at the 10-minute mark of the second period by happening to be in the right spot after Will Borgen’s shot from the point deflected to the side of the net. He used one hand to poke the puck past Greiss. Sprong and McCann added goals just over two minutes apart late in the period. Sprong’s eighth goal came on a breakaway, while McCann scored from behind the goal line banking his shot off Greiss. McCann leads Seattle with 15 goals on the season.

Brandon Tanev added an empty-net goal with 4:13 left.

Martin Jones made 22 saves for Seattle and won for the fourth time in his last five starts.

“The first two periods we were pretty good. We did what we had to do in terms of overall pace of play, energy,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had a lot of good opportunities in the second period.”

St. Louis looked as if fatigue finally caught up. The Blues were playing their third back-to-back in the last nine days. The Blues had swept through Western Canada with wins in Edmonton, Calgary and Monday night in Vancouver before running out of steam in Seattle.

“We didn’t have the legs tonight, but we’ve got to be smarter then, and your puck play has to be really good,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said.

Colton Parayko scored his second of the season for St. Louis at 5:59 of the third period, and Pavel Buchnevich scored with one second left on a power play at 10:54 to pull St. Louis within 4-2. Greiss made 28 saves.

The Blues also were without leading scorer Jordan Kyrou due to an upper-body injury, one night after recording his first career hat trick in a 5-1 win over Vancouver. Kyrou was checked into the boards by Vancouver’s Kyle Burroughs with 1:31 left in the game and didn’t play another shift.

Kyrou had been on a hot streak with nine points — six goals and three assists — in the first three game of the Blues’ road trip. Kyrou began the night as St. Louis’ leading scorer with 16 goals and 32 points.

“I think they handled it OK. We obviously miss him,” Berube said. “He’s a good player for us. It is what it is.”

NOTES: Tanev was stopped by Greiss on a penalty shot early in the third period after Tanev was tripped from behind on a breakaway. … Logan Brown moved into the lineup for his sixth game of the season with Kyrou out.

UP NEXT

Blues: Closes out road trip at Vegas on Thursday.

Kraken: Travels to Vancouver on Thursday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.