Apr. 19—There's been plenty of talk around the Kraken about Victor Rask and some of his new teammates using these final few weeks as auditions for next season's roster.

And fittingly for the Kraken in Monday night's 4-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators, it would be Rask scoring the eventual winner and two others guys that weren't with the team a month ago also adding goals. The crowd at Climate Pledge Arena got another dose of electricity courtesy of top draft pick Matty Beniers scoring his second goal in as many home games, redirecting an Adam Larsson shot to tie things midway through the second period.

Then, with just under four minutes to play in the frame, Rask, acquired from Minnesota at last month's trade deadline, scored on a laser wrist shot from the left faceoff circle to put the Kraken ahead to stay. Rask earlier had set up the game's opening goal by sliding a perfect pass to Daniel Sprong, who came over from Washington last month, for what became a one-timed power-play slap shot marker just 4:36 into the contest.

"It's obviously good for your confidence," Rask said of his effort, which extended his points streak to three games. "Going into next year, I'm a free agent, so it's nice to put some pucks in the net."

Rask's NHL career appeared it might be done when the Wild demoted him to the AHL this winter. His stint with the Kraken is seen as a final chance to show he can still play at a high level, and he's making the most of it.

"Obviously, it's nice to get to know everyone," he said. "I'm trying to pick my confidence up all the time. I know what I can do on the ice."

Karson Kuhlman appeared to score an insurance goal with 6:03 to play in regulation. But it was called back after Ottawa successfully challenged that a stoppage in play should have been called when Yanni Gourde knocked the puck down with a high stick to gain entry into Ottawa's zone.

But Jared McCann closed it out with 1:11 to go, scoring on an empty net with Senators goalie Anton Forsberg pulled after a nice stretch pass from Larsson.

Kraken netminder Chris Driedger was relatively untested early — with Ottawa managing only three shots in the opening period — then gave up a pair of quick goals to Brady Tkachuk and Nick Holden to start the middle frame as the Senators grabbed a 2-1 lead. But Beniers soon drew the Kraken even, Rask put them ahead, and Driedger went on to stop 12 of 14 attempts to record his team's second straight victory, this one in front of new team minority owners Marshawn Lynch and Macklemore cheering from the stands alongside the announced crowd of 17,151.

The 14 shots allowed by the Kraken were a season-low, surpassing the 18 given up to the New York Rangers on Oct. 31.

The Kraken held the Senators to just 10 shots the first two periods of play, much of that due to a plethora of Ottawa penalties owing to a physical style they tried to impose. Kraken defenseman Haydn Fleury, another player trying to impress these final weeks after being a healthy scratch for prolonged periods earlier this season, got into his first NHL fight in nearly five years after taking exception to Alex Formenton roughing up Carson Soucy behind the net.

"I felt like that first game in Ottawa (last month), we got pushed out of the game in the first period physically," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "That can't happen. We ended up down 3-0 in that game. ... We got pushed out of the game by their pace and their physicality. That didn't happen tonight. We turned the tables on that."

Fleury was out-punched by the more-experienced pugilist Formenton but held his own and proved a point that he could step up and protect teammates. Hakstol has made a point in recent weeks that he doesn't want opponents taking runs at vulnerable players without suffering consequences.

So Fleury's response was definitely noticed and earned him some points with his coach going forward.

The work by Rask and Sprong was also big. Hakstol had mentioned to Sprong last week that he'd noticed a drop-off in his two-way play and that he needed to show more of it these final weeks.

Sprong responded well with a solid effort in Saturday's win over New Jersey and continued that in this game, when the Kraken largely shut down the Senators for all but the early second-period flurry. He delivered the early power-play goal, quipping afterward that he'd watched former teammate Alex Ovechkin score one-timers from that position for the past two years.

"I learned a lot from him over that time which I'm really grateful for," Sprong said. "He was really good to me, talking to me about things like that. I know I've got a good shot, a good one-timer, and I don't need much space. Rask made a great play, and I had an open net."

From there, he also heeded Hakstol's advice about doing more to keep the puck out of his own net.

"I think everyone in that room wants to finish the season strong," Sprong said. "Some guys are playing for contracts, other guys are playing for different reasons. So I think in that room over there we all want to play well, and we all want to win as a team."

Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Your comment has been submitted.

There was a problem reporting this.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to our desktop.

Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time.

Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up!

Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.

You are already subscribed to this topic.

Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.