Kraken’s Vince Dunn goes off on refs after controversial penalty vs. Canucks

The Seattle Kraken pulled out a big 4-3 shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night, their sixth victory in seven games dating back to December 20. The team notably killed off a massive and controversial Berkly Catton penalty in overtime, which set off defenseman Vince Dunn.

Berkly Catton gets called for interference in OT and Vince Dunn was NOT happy about it pic.twitter.com/4LkN0Vi6t7

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 3, 2026

Dunn could be seen screaming at the referees after the penalty was confirmed, which put the Canucks a man up in the final two minutes of the extra frame. But the Kraken killed off the penalty, and Matty Beniers scored a slick goal in the shootout to secure the victory.

“It feels great,” Beniers said afterwards, per NHL.com’s Kevin Woodley. “Obviously, we want that win, and we didn’t get the shootout win last time we played these guys (on Dec. 29), so felt good to get that, especially on a back-to-back. Penalty kill does a great job putting us in that position to go into a shootout.

“That hasn’t been necessarily one of my strong suits, shootouts, and that’s something I’ve tried to work on and get better at.”

Seattle ended up outshooting Vancouver 28-24, and led 3-2 in the third period before Linus Karlsson knotted the score six minutes into the frame.

Cale Fleury, Chandler Stephenson and Ben Meyers scored for the Kraken, who have erased a brutal stretch from mid-November to mid-December and have now jumped into the final wildcard berth in the Western Conference.

Kraken playing inspired hockey as of late

Since trading Mason Marchment to the Columbus Blue Jackets on December 20, Seattle has lost just one time, and it came in a shootout against these same Canucks earlier in the week.

In that same span, Seattle has won five times in regulation and once on Friday night in the shootout, improving to 18-14-7 and fourth place in the Pacific Division.

That came directly after the team had endured a miserable 10 losses in 11 tries between November 23 – December 18. Things can change quickly, and just over two weeks later, Lane Lambert’s team is just three points back of the Edmonton Oilers, who currently own the top spot in the division.

“We battled,” Lambert said of the latest triumph, per Woodley. “When they tilted the ice a little, came back and made it 3-3, we had a push of our own, so that was nice to see and there was a lot of commitment. A gutsy win on a back-to-back.”

After beating the Predators and Canucks on back-to-back nights, the Kraken will have the weekend off before returning to action against the Flames in Calgary on Monday night.

The squad will look to keep rolling as it prepares for a five-game road trip that begins January 10 in Carolina.

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