On an evening when the baseball Mariners were knocked out of the playoffs in a 1-0 18-inning loss, the Seattle Kraken giving up a goal just 12-seconds into their home opener was a bad omen for what could be an even longer night. The local NHL team would lose its season debut at the Climate Pledge Arena 5-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Kraken forward Yanni Gourde coughed up a puck along the boards in his own zone, with Golden Knight William Carrier picking his pocket and quickly finding former Seattle Thunderbird Keegan Kolesar alone in front to easily pot his 1st goal of the season.
Just less than three minutes later, Jonathan Marchessault scored his first of two goals in the game on the power play at the 3:07 mark.
“It’s the execution and the mentality of our play with the puck that we have to fix,” Seattle Kraken Head Coach Dave Hakstol stated. “We can do that right away, looking at that tomorrow, it’s not all done by video, guys know it, guys know what we did, but we’ll take a look at some of it and we’ll address it.
The Kraken were still hanging around late in the 2nd period down 3-0 when goalie Martin Jones lost focus. He gave up Marchessault’s second goal of the night from a tough angle with just 3-minutes remaining and then a five-hole on a wrist shot with just :17-seconds remaining. Philipp Grubauer took over in the third period.
Seattle Kraken Grooby
“The right guy started tonight, in fact, he gave us a chance to steal this game with the number of saves that he made through the second period,” Hakstol said. “The Marchessault goal is obviously one he wants back, but Jonesy made a number of saves, had we been able to get one and get going, he kept us in a position to win this hockey game tonight.”
The Kraken worked diligently in the third period to put a couple of goals on the board while ruining Vegas goalie Adin Hill’s shut-out bid. Defenceman Justin Schultz tallied his first as a Kraken while Jaden Schwartz added his second of the season.
Seattle sits at 1-1-and-1 on the season while the Golden Knights improved to 3-and-0. The Seattle Kraken face the 2-and-0 Carolina Hurricanes on Monday evening at the Climate Pledge Arena.
