Kraken play in first overtime game, fall 2-1 to Columbus

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Another day, another first for the Kraken.

Seattle had already picked up its first win and first loss, and on Saturday in Columbus, its first overtime defeat, a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jackets.

Patrik Laine loaded up and beat Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer with 2 minutes, 16 seconds gone in the overtime period to give the Jackets their second win in as many games, and the Kraken their second defeat in three. Seattle picks up one point in the loss.

“We got tired on that one,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s so many different things going on. … There’s opportunity on transition the other way, and that’s how you know that’s a big part of it but on that, we were tired on that one.”

Brandon Tanev scored the lone goal for the Kraken, and his third of the season.

He leads the Kraken in scoring, and while his shot was the only one to find the back of the net for Seattle, there were other chances throughout the contest.

“We didn’t get a great bounce on their goal,” Tanev said. “But at the end of the day, hockey is a game of bounces and it’s not the result we want, but we walked away with a point and we’re OK like that. We’ll all move on to Philadelphia.”

One of those bad bounces came in the third when it appeared the Kraken were about to take the lead, but the puck had other ideas.

Seattle got the first power play of the game early in the second period, and its best chance, with Ryan Donato streaking toward the crease, but he whiffed on the bobbling puck and the Kraken stayed off the board.

It was the first time the Kraken didn’t allow an opposing goal in the first frame. The Kraken didn’t generate much offense, though; of their five shots in the opening period, four came from defensemen and all from above the slot – between the two circles in the offensive end – with a lot of distance from the net.

The Kraken got away with a low shot total against Nashville, scoring on their only shot of the period, and empty-netter, but this time around, it came back to burn them.

The Kraken again struggled to generate chances in the third period, but Hakstol found differences between how the final period went this time around compared to in Nashville.

“In Nashville, we had trouble breaking out,” Hakstol said. “This time, we didn’t spend all that much time in the defensive zone, probably had more possession but gave up more off the rush. That’s when the most dangerous opportunities were, and most of those came in the second half of the game.”

With 5:32 left in the second period, Tanev put the Kraken ahead. First, in a race for the puck in the Kraken’s offensive end, Tanev plowed past the Blue Jackets’ Oliver Bjorkstrand, then was patient before lifting a shot above Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins.

It was the first time the Kraken had scored the first goal of the game.

Before Tanev had the chance to strike, Columbus had a few high-danger chances of its own. First, Laine had a breakaway chance denied by Grubauer, then Alexandre Texier had a chance in transition off a long breakout pass from the other end of the ice with all sorts of space.

Grubauer made the stops to keep the Jackets off the board, and give the Kraken the first chance to take a 1-0 lead.

The Kraken didn’t get shots in the third period for a while, netting only two by halfway through the third. It finished with seven compared to the eight from the Blue Jackets, but a lot of those coming after Columbus had already tied the game.

With 11:14 to go in the third, the Blue Jackets came close to knotting things up. Defenseman Zach Werenski cycled down low and put a shot on Grubauer, and the Jackets tried to push it across the goal line, but the officials waived it off and Columbus stayed off the board.

A couple of minutes later, though, that didn’t matter when the Jackets did get on the board.

Eric Robinson won a battle to the puck and beat Grubauer, shooting over his right shoulder to make it a 1-1 game in the third.

After the Blue Jackets had a chance on a two-on-one and a bouncing puck got the better of them, Laine had an open look and beat Grubauer top shelf to win it for Columbus.

“You come into a tough building and play a good team, these are important points early in the season,” said Tanev. “There’s some stuff we didn’t like, but at the end of the day we want to get as many points as we can and ultimately this is a learning experience for our group and we’ll be moving to the next one.”