Kraken play spoiler against St. Louis with shootout win over Blues
By Jayd Serdy, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Our Seattle Kraken faced the St. Louis Blues for the third and final time this season, in the second to last game of the season for the Kraken. The Blues took the first two games in the series, including the very first game of this season here at Climate Pledge Arena, but the Kraken held strong in this one and took a 4-3 win after seven rounds of the shootout. Seattle netminder Philipp Grubauer got the nod in this matchup, for the first time since the Dallas Stars were in town on March 31st. Despite being under the weather with an illness suffered back before the April 8th game against Utah, Grubauer had a solid showing in net as he allowed three goals on 23 shots against and kept the Blues scoreless through the first two frames before some madness in the first ten minutes of the three period.
Tonight’s game started out slow, as the first period ended with just five shots on goal for the home team with three for St. Louis. The Kraken had a power play opportunity 7:58 into the first period, after Blues forward Mathieu Joseph took a penalty for hooking against Seattle forward Kaapo Kakko. Despite the man advantage, they couldn't find a scoring chance as they haven’t for the large majority of the season on the power play.
Just under four minutes into the second period, Kraken forward and alternate captain Jaden Schwartz opened up the scoring for Seattle with a wrist shot. Forward and team captain Jordan Eberle cleared the puck from the middle of his own zone after a Philipp Grubauer blocker save and passed it to Schwartz, who was streaking up the far wall of the ice in a two-on-one situation with Chandler Stephenson. “Cha cha” skated the puck up the boards and towards the center of the ice in an attempt to make the Blues skater caught in the odd man rush to commit either way, taking a shot that was blocked by defenseman Nick Leddy initially as he chose to take away the pass. The rebound from the puck being blocked went straight to Schwartz, who fired a shot on an open net as St. Louis netminder Jordan Binnington had slide over in anticipation of an attempt from Stephenson.
Both teams drew a penalty during the second, Blues forward Jordan Kyrou for tripping at 5:56 and Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans for holding another players stick at 15:28. While Seattle’s power play remained inept, the penalty kill played a critical role in ensuring that St. Louis didn’t find a response goal before we went into the second intermission. Seattle took their one-goal lead into the final frame, taking just five shots on goal during the second, and the Blues had nine through the middle frame.
About 30 seconds into the third period, the game paused due to St. Louis defenseman Cam Fowler taking a puck to the face and going down the tunnel as blood dripped on the ice and needed to be removed. He was able to return to the game about 13 minutes into the period. Seemingly fueled by blood, the Blues played with a vengeance, as forward Radek Faksa scored their first goal 1:06 into the period, just 30 seconds after Fowler went down the tunnel. Faksa picked up the rebound on a shot from Nick Leddy that Grubauer saved and snuck it past, as Philipp was out of position after making the initial stop.
Five minutes later, the Kraken regained the lead with a goal from their fourth line as Mikey Eyssimont slammed home a rebound off a shot by Tye Kartye, all starting on a takeaway in the neutral zone. The lead lasted less than a minute, though, as three Seattle forwards got trapped back in the offensive zone while St. Louis turned things around for an odd man rush. The Blues regained the puck from Jordan Eberle’s missed shot on goal and skated it into the offensive zone, where Robert Thomas sent the puck to Colton Parayko where he was able to get the puck past Grubauer on a forehand backhand attempt where he lifted it over his right leg blocker. 13 seconds later, the Blues struck again as St. Louis won the faceoff to restart play and Nick Leddy’s shot from just within the blueline went bar down to give the away side a 3-2 lead.
Shane Wright tied the game up two and a half minutes later with a deflection off his skate on a shot from Jamie Oleksiak, as Tye Kartye had held play up to allow some of his teammates to join the rush before the “Big Rig” sent a puck on net that deflected in off Wright. The goal was under review to see if Shane had used a “distinct kicking motion” to score, but ultimately the goal was deemed good and the game was tied up at 3-3. The final 10 or so minutes of the game looked like a human sized game of ping pong, with both teams skating the puck up and down the sheet of ice at Climate Pledge Arena. The third ended tied, and sent us into overtime. The Kraken managed to gain control early on into the overtime period and had the only two shots on goal over those five minutes, but ultimately Binnington stood tall for St. Louis and the game went into a shootout to add extra dramatics.
Seattle forward Eeli Tolvanen was the first skater up for the Kraken, as he was able to fake out Binnington and get the first goal of this shootout. Blues winger Jake Neighbours was first up for St. Louis and scored on a wrist shot to even things up.
Seattle’s second skater was captain Jordan Eberle, who had his shot blocked. Blues forward Robert Thomas was up for St. Louis, and despite the puck initially appearing to be stopped, it snuck behind Grubauer and managed to just pass the line to give the Blues a lead.
Kaapo Kakko was third for Seattle, and scored to even things up early into the round before St. Louis forward Brayden Schenn’s shot bounced off the post to ensure that the shootout remained tied.
The fourth round saw alternate captain Matty Beniers fail to give the Kraken a lead, as he couldn’t complete his fake out. Blues winger Zack Bolduc was also unable to score, with the puck being denied by Grubauer’s pad.
The shootout continued to drag on into the fifth round, where both Shane Wright for Seattle and Pavel Buchnevich of St. Louis were denied. Kraken forward Jared McCann and Blues forward Jordan Kyrou were denied in the sixth, furthering the shootout to a seventh round.
Finally, Seattle centerman Chandler Stephenson goes out for the seventh round and was able to score on Binnington to give the Kraken the lead once again and put pressure on the Blues to even things up or lose and hurt themselves in their chase for a playoff spot. St. Louis, with the game and two critical standings points on the line, sent winger Jimmy Snuggerud out where he was denied by Grubauer, giving the Kraken a shootout win in front of their home crowd.
What’s next?
With this win in the second to last game of the season for them, our Seattle Kraken will close out the 2024-25 season at home in the second of two consecutive games at Climate Pledge Arena when they host the Stanley Cup Playoffs bound Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, April 15th. That game has a puck drop time of 7:30PM PDT, as it will be broadcast live on ESPN as the Kraken will be closing out their season on national television for a second straight year after doing so in Minnesota around this time last season. With the Kings having already locked up a playoff spot and having the chance to secure home ice advantage if they defeat the Edmonton Oilers the night before this game against our Kraken on Tuesday, Los Angeles may have nothing to play for when they come to the Pacific Northwest and could rest some players going into the postseason.
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