Seattle Kraken, Calgary Flames

Kraken Can’t Hold On, Lose To Flames In OT, 4-3

The Kraken coughed up a late, one-goal lead and lost 4-3 to the Calgary Flames at 3:28 of overtime on a Rasmus Andersson goal.

1st Period

The Kraken came out on their heels the first two minutes of the game and gave up the opening goal to Elias Lindholm at the 1:16 mark following sustained pressure from the Flames.

After Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer got run over by Calgary forward Martin Pospisil at the 2:02 mark, the Kraken seemed to wake up. By the way, after ‘Gruby’ got buried by Pospisil following a save, the puck entered the net. The play was waved off and ruled goaltender interference.

At that point Seattle picked up their aggressive play, leading to sustained O-zone time and a goal by Vince Dunn off a clean face-off win by Alexander Wennberg at 8:42. 1-1.

Momentum was squashed when Kraken center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare went off for tripping at 11:31. Jonathan Huberdeau scored nine seconds later off a clean, in-zone face-off win on the power play to put the Flames back in front. It was a soft goal on Grubauer, one that went in off the bottom of his blocker.

2nd Period

Joey Daccord took over in net for Seattle to start the second period.

The Kraken earned a power play 6-and-a-half minutes in, but didn’t do a whole lot with it. Matty Beniers had a glorious chance in the low slot just as the penalty expired and Dan Vladar stone-cold stopped him.

Moments later Seattle capitalized five-on-five and it was another tally a goalie wouldn’t mind having back. This time it was Vladar who had Jordan Eberle’s soft backhander slip through his legs at 8:21. 2-2.

Two minutes later, following more pressure from the Kraken, Adam Larsson ripped a slapper from the right wing boards off a failed clear. Jared McCann was trying to get out of the way of the blast when the puck hit his stick, broke it in half, and proceeded to trickle into the net. 3-2 Seattle in short order off what turned out to be a beautiful tip-in.

The Kraken piled up the Grade-A scoring chances in the second half of the period. They outshot Calgary 17-6 in the middle stanza.

3rd Period

Seattle managed to create some chances while keeping the Flames at bay through the first eight minutes. Daccord made one huge save on a deflection by Lindholm.

With six minutes remaining, Yanni Gourde picked up a cross checking penalty in the offensive zone, adding plenty of tension. The Kraken killed it off with Daccord making an excellent glove save on an Andrew Mangiapane slapper just as Gourde came out of the box.

Speaking of Mangiapane, he’d tie the game at 15:53 by getting position on Dunn alongside Daccord, knocking down a left point shot by Noah Hanifin, and then shovelling in the loose puck. 3-3.

Overtime

Andersson picked up his own rebound off a wraparound attempt and potted the game winner with 1:32 remaining in overtime.

Shots on goal ended up even, 31-31. Power plays: Calgary 1-for-2, Seattle 0-for-2

Kraken 3 Stars:

1) Vince Dunn – Goal and an assist with three shots on goal.

2) Jordan Eberle – Tying goal in the 2nd period (story photo). Has seven points over his last five games.

3) Joey Daccord – Helped the team pick up a point after coming in following the 1st period. Stopped 23 shots.

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Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.