Stephenson Nets Pair In Kraken Shootout Loss

OTTAWA – Veteran centerman Chandler Stephenson mused postgame about the value of snagging extra road points after some line tweaks led to his first two goals this season in a place the Kraken hadn’t scored in nearly three years.

Swapping out centermen Stephenson and Shane Wright for one another on the second and third lines, respectively, led to a trio of goals from the pair that had the Kraken leading the Ottawa Senators late in the third period. But Dylan Cozens tied it for Ottawa in the final two minutes with the netminder pulled and the Kraken took a 4-3 shootout loss when Shane Pinto, who’d scored earlier in the game, beat Philipp Grubauer to end it.

“It would be nice to be walking out of here with two points, but we’ll take one – especially on the road,” Stephenson said afterwards.

The Kraken are now 2-0-2 and two games into a somewhat daunting six-city road swing that sees them face five playoff teams from last spring. They had late leads against prior playoff squads here and in Montreal on Tuesday, only to surrender tying goals in both ahead of defeat in overtime and now the shootout round after dominating Ottawa in 3-on-3 sudden death but failing to score.

Kraken netminder Grubauer, in his season debut, stopped 21 of 24 shots, including a point-blank save from the slot against NHL goal scoring leader Pinto that kept things tied midway through the second period. But then Cozens blew a long slap shot past Grubauer from the wall near the top of the right faceoff circle to tie the game with 1:46 to play in regulation.

“It’s just one of those games where, early in the season, you want to be able to close those out,” Stephenson said. “But it’s still early and we’re still figuring it out a bit with some different systems somewhat. So, yeah, I think no one is panicking. But at the same time, we were in the lead.”

It was early in the second period when Stephenson, playing with new linemates Jaden Schwartz and Eeli Tolvanen, rocketed a bar-down wrist shot behind Sens goalie Linus Ullmark to tie things up 2-2. Tolvanen got the whole sequence started with strong forechecking work, after which Schwartz stole the puck along the boards and fed Stephenson with a pass in the high slot.

Stephenson’s second goal put the Kraken ahead in the final period after Jordan Eberle had a couple of cracks at the puck in close. The rebound floated out to an oncoming Stephenson, who made no mistake with his ensuing shot.

“I played with Schwartzy the majority of the year (last season) and I played with Tolvy through parts,” Stephenson said. “Tolvy is a shooter and Schwartz is kind of like a dog on a bone, so he gets to a lot of pucks.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert had wanted to get Stephenson and Wright going with the moves after both entered with a lone assist between them – belonging to Wright – the first three games. Lambert afterwards stressed that getting Stephenson going offensively was especially important.

“He’s a guy who was a top-end player for us last season,” Lambert said of Stephenson, 30, whose 51 points were second most on last season’s team. “So, we need him to play that way. And he played very well for us tonight.”

The Kraken had entered the contest at Canadian Tire Center having failed to score in each of their last two games there the past two seasons, losing 3-0 and 2-0. They had also been shut out by Ullmark at home last season, meaning three of the last four Kraken contests against Ottawa resulted in them failing to score.

But the Kraken came out strong, dictating the even-pace play and looking sharp with several quality power play chances. The only goals they allowed ahead of the Cozens slapper at the very end were by Pinto and David Perron after the Kraken took some first period penalties.

“We controlled a large part of the game,” Lambert said. “We out chanced them. Our power play was really good. We just couldn’t find one towards the end. We did score, obviously, but certainly we had some great chances, and I thought we were stingy defensively for the most part.

“Play that hockey game 10 times, we probably win eight or nine of them.”

Wright took care of his team’s scoring drought in Ottawa fewer than five minutes in, putting in extra work to jam home a rebound. It was the first Kraken scoring play in this building since Jan. 7, 2023, a night in which four of the eight Kraken goals were by players no longer with the team.

The Wright goal came after Mason Marchment made a great play at the line to intercept a clearance attempt and keep the puck inside Ottawa’s end. From there, he fed a cross-ice pass to Brandon Montour, whose shot from the left faceoff circle was initially stopped ahead of Wright getting multiple whacks at the puck and banging it home.

“We were just working,” Wright said. “We were competing hard and forcing the D to make bad plays and turn pucks over. We were supporting each other really well and playing fast.”

A couple of penalties taken right after Wright’s goal slowed that early momentum, with Pinto scoring his NHL-best sixth of the season on a no-chance shot from the slot just seven seconds after the expiration of a Kraken penalty. Fewer than two minutes later, on another Senators power play, Perron took a cross-ice pass in his skates to Grubauer’s right but got off a shot quickly enough to beat the Kraken goalie and put the home side up 2-1.

But Stephenson knotted things up fewer than five minutes into a middle period mostly controlled by the Kraken, who had several chances to take the lead. Shortly after Stephenson’s goal, during a Kraken power play, McCann had a partially open net on a one-timed pass from Jordan Eberle but rang the puck off the short side goal post.

Then, with roughly four minutes to go in the frame, Ullmark made a brilliant glove snag of a one-timed Tolvanen chance off the rush from the right faceoff circle. Stephenson knows the team will need to finish such chances off as the season progresses, but for now he’s pleased the Kraken have competed in every game against top-flight opponents.

“All in all, you want to win every game,” Stephenson said. “I know that’s not realistic but when you have a late lead, you want to have two points.

“But, you know, I don’t want to say we’re happy with one point,” he added. “Obviously, two would have been nice. But we’re happy with the effort.”