SEATTLE — In a season of debuts for the Seattle Kraken, Matty Beniers may have had the best one yet.
The 19-year-old, who was the Kraken’s first pick in its first draft last spring and the second overall, made his first start in his first home game Saturday night in front of 17,151 at Climate Pledge Arena.
He scored his first goal, a rebound off the post of a shot from Vince Dunn that Jared McCann tipped late in the second period to key an eventual 4-3 shootout win for the Kraken over the New Jersey Devils.
Ryan Danato got the only goal of the shootout while goalie Philipp Grubauer made two saves as the Kraken improved to 24-44-6.
It was the Kraken’s 10th overtime game and fourth that went to a shootout with Seattle having now won three.
Benier’s goal, which put the Kraken ahead 3-2, came on his third shot of the game and came as Seattle rallied from a 2-1 deficit after the first period.
Beniers then gave Seattle a chance to win in the extra period when he drew a cross-checking penalty that gave the Kraken a 4-3-man advantage for the final 1:15.
Beniers, a native of Hingham, Massachusetts, signed with the Kraken just six days ago after finishing his season at the University of Michigan.
He made his NHL debut Tuesday at Calgary, getting an assist in a 5-3 loss.
Beniers’ family, including father Robert and mother Christine, was in attendance, shown on the big screen before the game, and among those joining in the raucous applause that greeted the goal as it happened and then roared again as he headed to the bench and it was announced.
The Kraken hope it is just the first of many for a player whose arrival has pumped some juice into the final weeks of a season that began with optimism but too quickly was met with the realities of life as an expansion team.
Beniers, who had an assist in 17 minutes, 10 seconds ice time in his debut Tuesday at Calgary, started on a line with Donato and Jordan Ebberle and had an effect from the start, winning the opening faceoff against Dawson Mercer, a first-round pick of the Devils in 2020.
But other than the sight of Beniers getting his first start, the game for most of the first two periods seemed headed to another night of disappointment.
But trailing 2-1 with under five minutes left in the second period the Kraken then scored two goals in a span of 1:37 to take the lead.
First, Carson Soucy fired in a slap shot off a nice pass from McCann to tie it at 2 at the 15:20 mark of the second period.
It was Soucy’s 10th goal of the season.
Then came Beniers’ goal.
The Devils, though, tied it again at the 4:55 mark of the third period on a goal by Damon Severson on a play in which for the second time on the night Soucy lost his stick and was trying to play defense without it. One of the assists was from Nathan Bastian, who began the season with the Kraken and played 12 games before being waived and claimed by the Devils, with whom he had played the last two seasons.
The Devils controlled much of the opening moments and scored just 3:12 in on a wrist shot by Jesper Bratt that suck inside the side of the net past Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer. It was the 24th goal of the year for Bratt, the team’s leading scorer.
The Kraken didn’t need long to get a tying goal, on a slap shot from the right side by Will Borgen at 10:49 that beat New Jersey rookie goalie Nico Daws. It was Borgen’s second of the season.
Seattle blew a chance to take the lead a few minutes later when Morgan Geekie missed a shot.
The Devils then regained the lead at 16:14 on a wrist shot from by Jesper Boqvist capping a period in which they outshot the Kraken 8-6.
Beniers then got the crowd excited late in the second period when he got the puck on a takeaway near the back of the face-off circle and quickly turned and headed toward the goal and fired a shot. But it was blocked by New Jersey’s Colton White indicative of how things went early on.
The Kraken have eight games remaining, four more at home, including Monday night against the Ottawa Senators.
The Devils are now 26-42-7, seventh in the Metropolitan Division.
