It was right there. In arguably the biggest game of the season to date, the Seattle Kraken had the Blues on the ropes and could have delivered a knockout blow in the second period. But St. Louis fought back from 3-1 down, tied the game early in the third period, and defeated Seattle 4-3 in overtime on the back of Pavel Buchnevich, who scored both the tying and the game-winning goals.
“It’s a tough point to lose,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We played hard, we played a pretty good hockey game. We obviously would like to capitalize on one or two good opportunities that we had, and that can maybe change the game when it’s a one- or a two-goal game.”
Getting one point out of the game is ok, but when you’re neck and neck with a team for playoff positioning, and you give yourself a chance to win the game, you need to win the game. That loss is a tough pill to swallow.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-3 overtime Kraken loss to the Blues.
Takeaway #1: It turned with a penalty
The Kraken dominated the first 13 minutes of the second period in a way we haven’t seen them dominate a period all season. The ice was tilted, plenty of shots were being fired at Jordan Binnington, and Seattle cashed in with two beautiful tic-tac-toe goals from Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen.
At that point, with the score 3-1 Seattle, we still had this sneaking suspicion that the game was far from over. Not to toot my own horn, but I said aloud, “They need to get one more here, while they’re dominating. It won’t last.”
The Kraken did not get one more, and indeed, the game turned on its ear with a penalty by Will Borgen at 13:17 of the second period. With star of the game Buchnevich driving into Seattle’s end, Borgen leaned on him and fell. Buchnevich stepped on Borgen’s stick and went down, drawing a tripping penalty.
Robert Thomas then tipped a Scott Perunovich shot on the power play, and suddenly St. Louis—which looked dead in the water for most of the period—had life.
“Obviously that’s a turning point,” Hakstol said. “They get back within one. Their power play is going pretty good right now, and we missed an opportunity at a clear. We had an opportunity to clear that puck with about 45 seconds to go in that kill, and we weren’t able to get the puck out and get it 200 feet [from our net].”
Seattle had another chance to bury the game with the score at 3-2, but Jaden Schwartz—playing in career game No. 700 against his old team—put his shot off the outside of the net.
The Blues came out with a hard forecheck in the third period, and Buchnevich tied the game. He then got the winner in overtime off a cross-crease pass by Brayden Schenn.
Takeaway #2: Oliver Bjorkstrand had a big night
A big reason the Kraken were so dominant in the second (before the penalty) was NHL All-Star Oliver Bjorkstrand. He was everywhere on the ice, and his reunited line with Tolvanen and Yanni Gourde was buzzing.
Bjorkstrand got the finish on Seattle’s stunning passing play off a power-play rush at 3:55 of the second, after a great setup by Alex Wennberg. He then created Tolvanen’s goal three minutes later by sneaking up behind Perunovich and lifting his stick to steal the puck.
The forward finished the night with a goal and an assist and five shots in 18:03 of ice time.
“When [Bjorkstrand is] hunting the puck the way that he is, his stick becomes so effective,” Hakstol said. “If he’s moving his feet on pucks… I mean, I don’t know how many strips he had tonight, but he had some big ones.”
Takeaway #3: The band is back together
With Vince Dunn and Philipp Grubauer both activated off injured reserve prior to Seattle’s 6-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, the Kraken inched closer to full health. Only Matty Beniers and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare remained out at that point, but we knew Beniers was getting close (Bellemare still has some distance to cover before he can return).
On Friday, all indications pointed toward a return for the reigning Calder Trophy winner, and indeed, he did return to the lineup against the Blues.
“He’s done all the work to be back in the lineup,” Hakstol said. “He’s worked very hard and taken all the necessary steps. If anything, we’ve taken an extra day or two, and that’s what you do in these situations to make sure a player is ready to come back. I liked his game tonight.”
Since Beniers went out, Jared McCann has excelled in Matty’s usual spot between Tomas Tatar and Jordan Eberle. Hakstol kept that trio together Friday and opted to ease Beniers back in on a fourth line between Tye Kartye and Brandon Tanev, though Beniers ended up with higher-than-fourth-line minutes at 15:37.
Every Kraken player was over 12 minutes of ice time Friday, which indicates Seattle is back to rolling four lines. That’s a good sign for the team moving forward.
Now, if only they can stay healthy…
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.