There are apparently some all-important distinctions to the not-so-appealing Kraken habit of falling behind in the opening five minutes of a game.
When a puck went in early yet again on Sunday night off the skate of defenseman Carson Soucy, it marked the 13th time that’s happened to the Kraken this season. But a major difference this time, factoring into the Kraken’s eventual 5-3 win over the Florida Panthers at Climate Pledge Arena, was the home team had actually been controlling much of the play before the unfortunate mishap.
And that mattered, as the Kraken didn’t need to shift gears to a higher level. They were already there and showed it throughout, eventually scoring three second-period goals off Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky to take the lead.
Then, after squandering that in a brief flurry moments later, the Kraken kept up their relentless pace in the third period as Mason Appleton scored his first goal in nearly two months just 26 seconds into the frame to put his team ahead to stay.
It was the first time in nine games since Dec. 30 that the Kraken, winners of three of their past four, managed more than three goals in a single contest.
Calle Jarnkrok added an empty net marker with 8.7 seconds to go to seal the win.
Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer came up huge in the final two minutes with Florida’s goalie pulled for the extra attacker. At one point, he sprawled across his crease to his left to deny Anthony Duclair a chance from close range at an open net.
The Kraken had already seen Adam Larsson hit the cross bar along with a couple of other close-in chances before Duclair was credited for the opening goal off Soucy’s skate. Soucy would eventually leave the game with a lower body injury suffered later in the period.
But rather than deflate from there, the Kraken kept pouring it on and out-shot one of the league’s top teams 13-8 in that opening frame while enjoying the majority of scoring chances.
They continued that pace in the second period, seeing Jordan Eberle backhand a puck off the post on a partial breakaway. Moments later, Marcus Johansson took a Mark Giordano pass to the left faceoff circle and one-timed it past Bobrovsky on the power play to tie the game 1-1 at the 5:02 mark.
Exactly five minutes later, Yanni Gourde gave the Kraken their first lead of the night by taking a cross-ice pass from Larsson at the right point and firing home another one-timed shot. It was Gourde’s first goal since Dec. 30 against Calgary, having been held scoreless his previous eight contests.
Just 17 seconds later, it would be Colin Blackwell making it a 3-1 game at the 10:19 mark by knocking the puck into the net with his head on a goal-mouth scramble.
The play stood upon video review and the Kraken appeared in full control of the contest.
But it was not to be. Morgan Geekie took a slashing penalty barely a minute after Blackwell’s goal and Jonathan Huberdeau cut the Kraken’s lead to just one with a wrist shot through a screen that beat Grubauer on the power play.
Then, just 1:35 after that, Aleksander Barkov unloaded a shot that deflected off Gourde and floated butterfly style toward the Kraken net. Grubauer had gone down early in anticipation of the shot and watched helplessly as it fluttered over him, off the cross bar and into the net to tie the game 3-3.
But the Kraken didn’t stop pushing.
Gourde, perhaps looking to spark his team, got into a spirited fight with the much bigger Radko Gudas — who has three inches and 35 pounds on him — before the period ended and battled him to a draw. Then, the third period began with Alex Wennberg hitting Appleton with a pass down the right side.
Appleton sped in on Bobrovsky and beat him with a shot to his blocker side to put the Kraken in front once again. It was only the third goal of the season for Appleton, who’d gone 15 games without scoring since he notched a pair in Buffalo on Nov. 29.
_____
