The Seattle Kraken rallied behind two goals from the man they call “Turbo”, Brandon Tanev, to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in overtime on Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena.
Tanev creates unexpected scoring opportunities on a regular basis, often shorthanded, but “Finish” isn’t his middle name. This time around he finished twice. By far the club’s leading shot blocker among forwards, Tanev first tallied after disrupting a pass in Seattle’s defensive zone. After knocking the puck ahead, he chased it down, raced in on Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill and beat him blocker side with a wrist shot.
It was a huge goal with less than three minutes to play in the first period with the Kraken trailing 2-0.
He’d score again to tie the game at the 7:12 mark of the 2nd period when he couldn’t miss from the doorstep off a feed from linemate Tye Kartye, who stole the puck along the left goal line following a lost face0ff.
Seattle head coach Dan Bylsma thought the 2nd period was his team’s best of the year.
Oliver Bjorkstrand, a healthy scratch for Tuesday night’s game against the Avalanche in Denver, scored the go-ahead goal just 2:58 into the 3rd period when he crashed the net and chipped in a rebound.
The 3-2 Seattle lead didn’t hold.
The Golden Knights picked up some luck to force overtime. With their net empty and an extra attacker on the ice, Alex Pietrangelo’s point shot deflected in off Seattle defenseman Adam Larsson’s skate with 82-seconds left in regulation.
That set up Jared McCann’s OT heroics.
McCann scored just :29 seconds into the extra session after forcing a turnover and then taking a pass up ice from D-man Brandon Montour.
The win snapped a four game Seattle losing streak.
