The Kardiac Kraken™️ (that’s what I’m calling them now) did it again! After rallying back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Thursday, Seattle again faced an uphill climb Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In this one, they entered the third period tied 1-1, but going shorthanded for the fourth time in the game against the NHL’s best power play proved to be one too many rounds of playing with fire.
Evgeni Malkin made it 2-1 with the manpower advantage at 5:56 of the third, but Matty Beniers forced overtime, and Brandon Montour won it in the extra frame. The win gives the Kraken a big opportunity to take six of eight points on the road trip, as they head to Long Island to face the Islanders on Sunday.
“We defended as hard as we could,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I thought our goaltender played a great game, and there’s no question we’re going to be right back at here in not too many hours, so we just have to make sure that we focus in and be good with our structure tomorrow.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-2 Kraken win over the Penguins in OT.
Takeaway #1: Mason Marchment gets the monkey off his back… then faceplants
The start of Mason Marchment’s Kraken tenure has been far from perfect. Since he scored in Seattle’s first game of the season, we’ve frequently noticed him fumbling pucks, missing passes, and deferring to teammates instead of letting it rip in obvious shooting situations.
But since Lambert elevated him onto the top line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle, Marchment has seemed to be finding his way in deep sea blue. He made a massive impact against the Penguins with a goal, a primary assist, and a hilarious fall.
His goal and high-comedy tumble opened the scoring in a tight-checking game at 1:24 of the second period. Marchment actually turned the puck over to 18-year-old Ben Kindel, but then Kindel handed the puck right back to him and took himself out of the play at the Pittsburgh blue line. Marchment, finding himself with an open lane down the slot, took a few steps north and let his big shot go, sneaking it under the left arm of Sergei Murashov. As he pumped his fist and took a huge sigh of relief, the boards jumped out at Marchment and took him down in a heavy way.
IT'S A MUSH PUSH! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 23, 2025
Marchment gets a gift handed to him by Kindel, then rips it through Murashov for his first goal since Game 1 of the season!
He absolutely bites it on the celebration, though. 😂
1-0 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/Hvtr5elrCC
Just an all-time goal celebration from Mason Marchment. #SeaKraken broadcast doing him dirty with the reverse angle here.😂 pic.twitter.com/Zds666dQro
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 23, 2025
“Classic him, falling on his face with a big smile on his face,” Brandon Montour told Piper Shaw on the Kraken broadcast.
Marchment also factored into the critical game-tying goal in the third period. The top line had been buzzing for the better part of a minute, spending most of that stretch in Pittsburgh’s zone. After some perimeter passing, Marchment handed it to Ryker Evans, who began walking down the left half wall. The two traded places, and Evans dished it back to Marchment. Marchment wasted no time in finding Matty Beniers through the seam. Beniers dusted it off and slung a perfect shot under the bar.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 23, 2025
At the end of an outstanding shift by the top line, Mason Marchment makes a perfect seam pass to Beniers, who goes top cheddar. Beautiful goal.
2-2 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/ao06XJlLTD
We were thrilled when the Kraken traded for Marchment in the offseason, but early returns have been limited. It’s great to see him get rewarded with two points in this one, and Kraken fans have to feel encouraged that this could be a turning point for him.
“[Marchment] has played very well for at least a couple of weeks now,” Lambert said. “He’s been a force out there, he’s making plays, he’s using his body. He’s playing well for us.”
By the way, on Beniers’ goal, Lambert said: “That was a snipe.”
Takeaway #2: Grubauer shines again
The last couple of games have been the most confident Philipp Grubauer has looked in a long… long time. One could argue it’s the most confident he’s looked at any point during his tenure with the Seattle Kraken.
In a way, Grubauer is making general manager Jason Botterill look brilliant for not buying him out over the summer, because he has been razor-sharp in his last two appearances and has earned two straight wins—at a time when fellow backup Matt Murray has landed on the shelf for an extended period with a lower-body injury.
Grubauer came up with 30 saves in this one, his highest total of the season, and improved to 4-0-1 with a 2.14 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in six appearances, far and away his best numbers as a Kraken (though still in a relatively limited sample size).
What I liked most was the way he bounced back after his miscue with Ryan Lindgren gave Sidney Crosby an easy goal at 16:16 to tie the game 1-1. Sometimes a misplay like that—whether it was his fault or Lindgren’s or a combination of the two—can rattle a goalie. But Grubi went right back to work after that and continued looking calm and collected in the crease.
The Kraken are managing the duo of Grubauer and Joey Daccord a little differently than how they’ve historically handled them in back-to-back scenarios, running Grubauer out in the first game and saving Daccord for the second. So far, that plan has paid off. Sunday on Long Island, let’s see if Daccord can get them to their first win in the second of back-to-backs since the 2023-24 season and their first win in both games of a back-to-back since 2022-23.
Takeaway #3: Rallying back again
The Kardiac Kraken™️ aren’t making things easy on themselves. For a team starved for offense, you’d think they’d push a little harder to generate offense earlier in the game. But as we’ve heard from Lambert throughout the season, they need to be comfortable in tight games. And what’s really impressive is that it doesn’t seem to matter whether they’re ahead or behind by a goal (or two, as was the case Thursday in Chicago); they show good patience and composure either way, and when it feels like they need a goal, they’re getting it.
In the end, it was Montour who played the overtime hero in this one. After four minutes of struggling to even get possession and Kris Letang ringing one loudly off the post, Evans finally grabbed hold of the puck and retreated behind his own net to allow for a forward change. Evans began a controlled breakout with Freddy Gaudreau and Berkly Catton, then headed to the bench himself. On came Montour.
Gaudreau made a great play to gain the offensive zone with speed and hit the brakes at the top of the left circle, drawing two of the three Penguins defenders to him. He laid it back to the blue line, where Montour skated right into it, walked down Broadway, and ripped it past Murashov.
#SEAKRAKEN WIN! BRANDON BOMBTOUR! 💣🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 23, 2025
The Kraken couldn't get sustained control for the first four minutes of OT. But they finally got a chance here, Freddy Gaudreau drew two defenders and laid it back for Brandon Montour to walk down Broadway.
3-2 final. pic.twitter.com/xaZN1lKMSW
Of course, it would be nice to see the Kraken win in easier fashion every now and then, but what they’re doing is working. With the victory, they improved to 11-5-5 on the season, good for 27 standings points and a very temporary tie with the Anaheim Ducks for first in the Pacific Division.
Are the Kraken nasty wasty?
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.
Mason Marchment is made of chaos and nonsense, and occasionally that’s awesome. The absurdity of the play where he scored the goal can hardly be conveyed via a written medium. First he makes a sweet play on the forecheck at the blue line, but he then immediately turns the puck over. The puck is not on the opponent’s tape for a second before Marchment steals it right back from him like he had totally meant to do that. Then, of course, he snaps the puck into the net past the goaltender like a boss before face planting on the celebration. The sequence made me think of Jackie Chan in Drunken Master. It is easy to criticize his play this year, but it is impossible to not enjoy his performance. I am glad that he, Eberle, and Beniers are all clicking now. They each set some gutsy screens and threw some big blocks in the game as well.
Ryker Evans is straight up good. I recall being uncertain about his future when Botterill committed to him as a part of the young core, but Evans has been proving him right in every game he has played. Of course, Vince Dunn has rightly been taking the biggest assignments for the most part, but did you notice Evans get the call in overtime? I was surprised at that, as Dunn had played a very good game to my eyes, but I think Lambert was trying to get a look at how Evans would respond in a big moment.
Nailed it.
And don’t forget Marchment’s embellishment penalty. Though after watching his many Bambi-on-ice moments, I’m beginning to wonder if he’s let himself get a reputation as a diver because that’s cooler than admitting that he’s just a klutz.
Right? Other guy gets a penalty OR it’s embellished. Makes no sense.
Let’s go!!! Freddie to Monty for the win. Woot!
Looking forward to the keenly discerning Kraken fans to break this down for us. Too many old guys…too many young guys…not enough young guys…no stars like Sydney Crosby…too easy to win on the road in Pittsburgh…we should have won well before OT…etc etc 😄
Go Kraken!
Here’s to breaking the losing curse today of second games in back to backs.
Go Kraken!!!
The Islanders are also on the 2nd of a back-to-back, which hopefully means that Sorokin isn’t playing. There’s a chance!!
What’s up with the league this year? The Pens are clearly washed up, but they are 16th in the standings. The only teams that seem to have it together are Colorado and Carolina (and we know Carolina will probably fizzle out in the playoffs). Dallas is third but they also look diminished from years past.
There are like 25 more or less flawed teams most of whom play to win 3-2/to keep the score down, which makes for pretty boring hockey (like the two first periods last night, brrr). Even last year there were some teams that impressed. Let’s hope the quality of the games picks up sooner rather than later.
It’s called parity. Only one team can win each game.
Adjust your thoughts and appreciate that virtually any team can win on any given night and that a game’s not over until it’s over.
What happened to the Grubi haters?
We have so many exciting skaters. A solid blend of youth and experience. But, I could not be more happy that we have a more than solid back up goalie.
Grubauer’s recent revival is a hell of a thing. He seemed broken at the end of last season, like his confidence was completely shot, understandably. The team refrains from a buyout, but the reason seemed from the outside at the time to be less a vote of confidence then it was a practical salary cap consideration. The GM takes a journeyman goaltender off his couch to be competition, and Grubauer appeared to all the world to be destined to be out of the league at the end of the season.
As the third goaltender on the roster, he watches the team ride Joey Daccord into the ground, showing absolutely zero confidence in either of the backups, but eventually they have to give them both starts. Grubauer looks scrambly, but the puck stays out of the net. He even makes a handful of impressive looking desperation saves that get the team the win. With Daccord hurting, Grubauer, playing backup, comes into a game to relieve Murray when he gets hurt at the end of the first period and pitches a shutout in dramatic fashion, still looking a bit scrambly but in a way that the crowd can’t help but love. All of the sudden, the crowd that had previously given up on him started pouring down “Gruuuu” chants on his head once again. In his next start he put on a nearly flawless performance, putting up absurd advanced stats. Now he looks like a plus backup, and anything is possible for him. This is the kind of personal hero story that makes sports so compelling.
There is another angle to the story as well, that being new goalies coach Colin Zulienello. It looks like everything the man touches turns to gold. Firstly, aging Senators goalie prospect Joey Daccord gets sent to first Charlotte and then Coachella Valley and establishes himself as an up and coming star. Then Phillip Grubauer gets run out of Seattle and rediscovers his confidence with first the Firebirds and now the Kraken. At the same time, Matt Murray, who had already been effectively worked his way out of the NHL by injury and inconsistency, has reestablished himself as at least a viable backup at the highest level. Essentially, every time a netminder in a bad situation finds himself in Zulienello’s tutelage, the guy breaks out. It can’t be all the coach, of course. The players have to have the determination to make great things happen, but from our perspective it is easy to imagine a significant contribution on the part of the coach.
General consensus has been Gru is an awesome guy who everyone wants to succeeed, BUT objectively has been terrible in net for 4 years with the exception of a great playoff run. So most fans had run out of patience especially since he isn’t a 24 year old goalie breaking into the league…he was a highly paid #1 starter.
I think most Gru doubters are loving him succeeding right now and getting some redemption. It’s great for the team and by all accounts he is a wonderful guy who has embraced living in Seattle – so most fans have been dying to really root for him.
I hope we have Zulianello locked up on a long term deal since he seems to be working magic for the org the last few years. I can only imagine what his value to the Leafs or Oilers would be right now. This year definitely is showing the difference in coaching across the board.