As a fourth-line center, Morgan Geekie’s role for the Seattle Kraken isn’t necessarily to score goals. Yet Tuesday night, he reminded viewers that he has a scoring touch, notching a pair of goals to pace the Kraken in an important 5-3 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center.
Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak scored to give Seattle a 4-2 lead at 9:46 of the third period after a great shift by Yanni Gourde and Ryan Donato. The Blues pushed back, however, and cut the Kraken lead to 4-3 on a Pavel Buchnevich goal at 14:29 to force some nervous moments at the end.
“We played a good road game,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had a response each time they scored, we bounced back and scored within a couple of minutes to push the momentum back the other way.”
With the net empty and an extra Blues player on the ice, Brandon Tanev scored an empty-net goal with seven seconds left to secure the win and solidify the 5-3 final.
For Geekie, it was his first multi-goal game as a Kraken and his third in the NHL, and he helped the Kraken end a three-game losing streak.
“The release on his first shot was outstanding,” Hakstol said. “He gets that away and puts it in the right spot. You don’t beat Binnington with many of those. The second one, go to the net and good things happen.”
Eeli Tolvanen had three assists, Daniel Sprong had two assists, and Jared McCann and Oleksiak each scored for Seattle (33-21-6), who played the first game of a four-game road swing. Martin Jones made 22 saves.
Buchnevich had a goal and assist and Robert Thomas and Brandon Saad each scored for the Blues (26-29-5), who lost a second straight. Jordan Binnington kicked away 21 shots.
“We tried to play below the goal line as much as we could.” Geekie said. “We’re a heavy team and we move the puck well. I think we played really well, I think we stuck to our game plan. It was pretty simple coming in.”
Despite the Blues taking eight of the game’s first nine shots, it would be Seattle who opened the scoring at 9:30 of the first period when Geekie scored top shelf to make it 1-0. It was Geekie’s sixth of the year and was set up by Daniel Sprong who returned to the lineup after missing two games.
“We have good chemistry, kind of play off each other,” Geekie said. “Normally, it’s Spronger who is the one scoring, not me, so he returned the favor tonight. It was lots of fun.”
St. Louis tied the game with a short-handed goal after a Seattle turnover, Thomas lugged the puck up ice at 5:11 of the second period and his shot beat Jones on the short side.
As the power play was ending, Jared McCann scored to make it 2-1 from right inside the left face-off circle at 6:57. It was McCann’s 27th goal of the season, which ties his career high that he set last year.
“I really don’t care about that stuff,” McCann said. “I wan’t to make the playoffs, I want to get a shot at the Stanley Cup. Your time in this league flies by, ask some of the older guys, and I want to compete for a Stanley Cup.”
Brandon Saad tied the game 2-2 at 9:03 after it appeared Vince Dunn started a line change, leaving Saad alone in the middle of the ice. He flung a shot and somehow got it past Jones.
Geekie scored again to put Seattle back ahead, 3-2, at 13:32, sliding in a rebound after a Justin Schultz shot was slid across to him by Sprong.
Oleksiak’s goal would end up as the deciding goal.
Tentacle Tales
- Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn played his 400th NHL game.
- The Kraken won on the road for the 18th time this year, which is the fourth most in the NHL trailing Boston (22), New Jersey (21), and Buffalo (19).
- With the win, Seattle jumped over the Edmonton Oilers for third place in the Pacific Division. The Oilers were idle on Tuesday.
The first 5-7 minutes were painful as we looked unprepared to play against a team looking to prove themselves after trading away so many of their key players. Glad to see the script flip in the 3rd but those sloppy starts need to get cleaned up. Our PP desparately needs a reboot as we continue to give up the shorties. A good win nonetheless as our scoring by committee structure shines through. You can’t out pizza the Geekie.
Way to go Morgan!!!
Uncle Tony and Aunt Judy from PA
Geekie has so much personality, I can’t help but like him. It’s great to see him have some success. And the Kraken too!