The Kraken set themselves up for a second straight embarrassing loss on Saturday, going down two goals in St. Louis and then leaving it until the second-to-last second to tie the score. The hard way worked.
The Blues were a playoff team last year, but sat 15th of 16 teams in the Western Conference heading into this contest. They came 1.9 seconds away from beating the Kraken in regulation.
The Kraken pulled goaltender Philipp Grubauer for the extra attacker and center Chandler Stephenson sent the game to overtime, just barely, through heavy traffic. The goal had to survive a lengthy league review for goaltender interference but it held up.
Nearly two minutes into 3-on-3 OT, center Shane Wright’s fourth goal of the season gave the Kraken the unlikely 4-3 victory. While coming around the net and watching the puck he'd just fired rattle around in it, Wright ran into teammate Ryker Evans and sent the just-returned defenseman into the boards with a crack. No harm done, hopefully, and the team surrounded a delighted Wright.
I thought we showed a lot of character, coming back," coach Lane Lambert said.
It wasn't all good news Saturday, though. Grubauer got just his second start of the season in place of Joey Daccord, who did not travel with the team. Daccord is being evaluated for an upper-body injury in Seattle, the team said.
Daccord was pulled from the Kraken’s most recent game Wednesday against the San Jose Sharks, seemingly to shake things up — Seattle was down 5-1 at the time — and not due to an injury. But his name appeared on injured reserve Saturday, meaning he will miss at least the Kraken’s next two games.
Daccord played a large role in the Kraken’s early success. He sports a 6-2-3 record with one shutout, a 2.83 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage.
The Kraken turned to two backup goalies who have seen very little action. Grubauer’s only start came in a shootout loss Oct. 16 in Ottawa.
Matt Murray will likely finish Seattle's back-to-back Sunday in Dallas. His lone start was Oct. 21 in Washington, a regulation loss. Each goalie has relieved Daccord once as well.
Each side on Saturday had at least one feel-good story. Seattle defenseman Evans missed the Kraken’s first 13 games with an upper-body injury sustained during training camp but scored 28:28 into his season debut to trim the Blues' lead to 2-1.
"I thought he was outstanding, actually," Lambert said. "It's not just the numbers that he put up."
Winger Eeli Tolvanen, meanwhile, appeared in all 13 but had been uncharacteristically quiet. Coming off a career-best 23 goals, Tolvanen had four assists and plenty of chances as a Kraken power-play regular, but hadn't scored.
He was flying Saturday night, and his linemate Tye Kartye was the perfect complement. The pair is tied for the Seattle lead in hits so far this season with 36 apiece. In St. Louis, Kartye was usually in the right spot. The two saw a 2-on-1 dissolve five minutes into the second period, and later Kartye set up Tolvanen for a give-and-go after a Blues stick broke at the other end of the ice. Tolvanen got a close-up chance but Blues goaltender Joel Hofer (26 saves) stacked his pads.
Their connection paid off when Kartye passed off to Tolvanen, who in turn sent a cross-ice feed to Evans. Evans took the wide-angle shot and scored.
Seven minutes later, Tolvanen didn’t hesitate when a Vince Dunn power-play rebound flew right to him. He scored his first goal of the season into a half-empty net, just ahead of a sliding Hofer.
Especially given the long layoff between starts, Grubauer (16 saves) played well. On one of his best stops, Grubauer came to the front of his crease to stare down incoming Blues forward Jordan Kyrou.
Kyrou, who is in the third season of an eight-year deal with a cap hit of $8.125 million, had four goals with four assists through 14 games and was a healthy scratch in the Blues’ last game. St. Louis won 3-0 in his absence. Kyrou responded to the indignity by scoring the go-ahead goal for St. Louis in the third period, later matched by Stephenson.
Dylan Holloway and Dalibor Dvorsky put St. Louis up 2-0. Dvorsky's was another strike against the Kraken's penalty kill, tied for fifth-worst in the league (70.6%) after the game. His shot went off Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson.
Seattle won for the first time this season when the other team scored first. It was previously 0-2-3.
"We deserved to win after that second period, Evans said.
The Kraken have been healthy scratching one of their three rostered goaltenders all season, but since they needed both healthy netminders in St. Louis, rookie forward Jani Nyman was scratched instead. Nyman has three goals this season, but hasn't registered a point in six games.
Evans pushed Josh Mahura out of the lineup. Mahura joined defenseman Cale Fleury in the press box.
Forward Berkly Catton, 19, played just over 10 minutes in in his ninth game of the season. His entry-level contract will kick in if he's in the lineup against the Stars on Sunday.
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