Lightning Crashes! Seattle Kraken Beat Tampa Bay 4-3 in OT

The Seattle Kraken got a much needed win tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a 4-3 overtime victory. Nice time for the team to get their first ever win against the Lightning. The Kraken who have been riding the hot hand in net, or basically going with Joey Daccord because the team actually scored goals when he played, went with their actual starter Philip Grubauer and he did not disappoint.

Enough with the Daccord experiment, and nothing against him, but Grubauer looks like a starting goalie. Between the goal support and not having a team make him pay yet for his overaggressive puck play, Daccord has had a lot of luck go his way. Teams will figure that out (if they haven’t already). Grubauer brings a calmness to the crease. He looked sharp tonight. In case you were not able to watch, here is what you missed in this one.

The first period was all Kraken (20-9 in shots). The team dominated from the get go. 10 minutes into the period, Jaden Schwartz, who is on pace to have a career year, intercepted a sleepy Tampa pass on the blue line, and almost scored a breakaway goal. Excellent read and play. Less than 2 minutes later, Brian Dumoulin scored his first of the season. A great read on some nifty Kraken passes, getting Tampa’s goalie Jonas Johansson out of place and making him pay.

Schwartz got one of the assists. Freaking stud.

Less than a minute later, Seattle entered the zone, kept the puck low by a nice play by Kailer Yamamoto, and Yanni Gourde buried his shot. Kraken up 2-0. Great play but the Spokane native. Seconds later the Lightning answered on a crap goal by Tanner Jeannot. Lucky goal, not Grubauer’s fault.

Two and a half minutes later, the Kraken, under intense pressure on the Lightning goalie, were able to bang home a nice rebound (Yamamoto) to extend the lead to 3-1. Shortly after the period ended. The Kraken looked like the team from last season, maybe a little better even.

The second period went to Tampa (shots were 15-13 Tampa). Grubauer looked good, in spite of the Tampa push. Tampa came out swinging. At 16:20 Tampa scored a ugly goal after moving the puck all over the Kraken house and getting the entire defense out of place. Basically an empty net. Kraken led 3-2.

In all fairness, it was a power play goal, so at least there was a reason it felt like we were missing players on the ice.

Tampa was able to sustain the pressure the remainder of the period and Gru was solid. Great period by Grubauer.

The third period was a great period of hockey. Both teams got their chances and both goalies played well. Tampa dominated the shots 13-5. Tampa was able to tie the game up 3-3, with 5:28 remaining in the game. A strange goal that was the result of putting traffic in front of the goalie and throwing the puck on net. Crappy time for the defense to not do their job. Keep the line of sight clear for your goalie.

The third period ended and the game was headed to overtime, a theme this season for Seattle.

In overtime, the Kraken went up on the man-advantage and Jared McCann was able to make them pay. His 5th of the season and overtime winner. Oliver Bjorkstrand got a helper on it too, giving him 8 points this season. Kraken won 4-3!

Positives

• The Kraken won! Seattle Needed this victory and now head home with 5 out of a possible 8 points in the standings. Well done sirs!
• Seattle outshot Tampa 43-37. They were able to pretty much impose their will all game. Great job.
• Philip Grubauer was awesome. About time the team played well in front of him. He has been really good this season, getting this win has to feel good, and now the brass will play him more.
• Oliver Bjorkstrand continues to quietly be the guy they hoped he would be. Keep scoring Oli!
• Jaden Schwartz right now is the best player on the team. Dude deserves to wear a ‘C’.

Negatives

• The team blew a 3-1 lead and was forced into overtime. Nothing like making a game interesting. This team is trying to give me a heart attack.
• Tampa Bay won a staggering 60% of the faceoffs! Yikes. The Kraken must do better than that.

Final Takeaways

The Kraken were able to get another win, in spite of blowing another 2 goal lead in a game. It is not how the team drew it up, but a win is a win. Seattle needed this one. If the team is going by the ‘what have you done for me lately’ decision making on goalies, then Grubauer should be back as the starter, and deservedly so. He is the guy in Seattle. Great win! The team heads home to face Nashville Thursday night. Let’s go boys! Nice dub!

Fear the Deep!