Kraken Take Hard-Fought Win In Yet Another OT

TORONTO – Kraken defenseman Josh Mahura and his shorthanded teammates already knew this prime-time Saturday night affair would be a mettle tester even before some veterans began dropping from the lineup.

With the team announcing pregame that defenseman Brandon Montour was taking personal leave for a family matter and Freddy Gaudreau would be out long-term with an injury, they needed someone to step up in this 4-3 overtime win and Mahura came through. The unsung defender raced around Maple Leafs star William Nylander in the extra session and put a backhand-forehand deke move on goalie Anthony Stolarz to deliver only the second Kraken victory ever against Toronto and the first since their inaugural season.

“I was just trying to beat my man up the ice and lucky enough it worked out,” quipped Mahura somewhat honestly since he isn’t exactly known for filling the net.

In fact, the last time he scored an NHL goal was nearly three years ago in this very same Scotiabank Arena against current teammate Matt Murray while playing for the Florida Panthers. Mahura claimed he didn’t remember that January 2023 factoid until advised postgame, though his even being on the ice in 3-on-3 overtime is testament to the Kraken believing he can play steady and move the puck in Montour’s absence.

Vince Dunn and Jani Nyman also came up big with second period goals while Shane Wright scored again for the second straight game to give the Kraken their first of three leads on the night. The Kraken improved to 3-0-2 while playing their fourth straight overtime contest and snagging two points instead of just the one they’d notched in losing the last pair of games.

“It’s obviously huge, with going into the overtime tonight,” Mahura said. “We knew we were in this position the last two games as well and wanted to come out of it with the extra point tonight.”

The Kraken had a third period lead for the fifth consecutive game but failed to hold it for the fourth time in a row as John Tavares backhanded home his second of the night on the power play barely a minute into the frame.

Kraken netminder Joey Daccord then forced the overtime by making a huge point-blank stop on Oliver Ekman-Larsson right after an Adam Larsson shot block in the dying seconds of regulation. The Kraken are halfway through a somewhat daunting six-city road trip against mostly playoff teams from last spring, with all three contests decided beyond regulation and with no team managing a lead of more than one goal at any point.

“We’re in tight hockey games,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said. “It’s the way it is. It’s the fourth overtime game in a row. So, we expect to be in tight hockey games for the most part and we have to be comfortable playing in those games.”

The Kraken have not said whether Montour will miss more than this one game, though Gaudreau will be out 4-to-6 weeks with an upper body injury suffered when he took a hard hit into the boards on Thursday night in Ottawa.

Lambert had said pregame he needed players stepping up with Montour and Gaudreau out and Kaapo Kakko and Ryker Evans already injured and not expected back until next month. Watching Mahura do just that in an unfamiliar overtime role was one of those fill-in jobs he’d hoped for.

“It was really good to see,” Lambert said. “I thought our guys stuck with it. It wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch, but it was a pretty good hockey game for us in a very good building.”

The Kraken were playing in a “Hockey Night In Canada” game televised nationally north of the border on Sportsnet. And playing on the same weekend the Mariners and Blue Jays will resume their American League Championship Series on Sunday at the ballpark just up the road from here, meaning this city was buzzing with sports excitement and plenty of Seattle-Toronto rivalry.

The Kraken walked into the arena from their team bus sporting authentic Mariners jerseys shown during the night’s Canada-wide broadcast on Sportsnet. They were seeking their first win here in nearly four years and only their second over Toronto in nine tries overall.

And they had several players hailing from Toronto and surrounding towns, including goal scorers Dunn and Wright and also Mason Marchment – who collected two assists – all of whom grew up watching Hockey Night in Canada weekly on Saturday nights and appeared amped-up for this contest.

“The guys stepped up and we kept them to some outside chances,” Marchment said. “They had a couple of good ones, but mostly outside chances. Joey (Daccord) played great. A couple of guys stepped up. It was a big win.”

Dunn agreed the team has done a strong job of persevering in the face of injuries to remain unbeaten in regulation while playing quality opponents.

“I think right from the start of the season we’ve dealt with a lot of things,” Dunn said. “It’s always unfortunate to see guys go away no matter what they’re dealing with. I think just the group of guys we have is so tight in here. Guys have stepped up and done a great job with whatever they need to do to help us win.”

Dunn, of course, is the Kraken’s other primary offensive-minded defenseman when Montour isn’t around. His goal on a right-side blast through a screen provided by Jaden Schwartz helped put the Kraken back in front late in the second period after the Maple Leafs had tied it just 63 seconds prior.

Schwartz was shoved into the crease and then into goalie Stolarz as Dunn’s shot arrived, but the goal was allowed.

Nyman’s goal with fewer than six minutes to play in the middle frame came when he one-timed a drop pass by Marchment off the rush to give the Kraken their second of three leads in the contest. While Nyman is touted as more of a natural goal scorer than the injured Gaudreau, they’d both been sharing fourth line duties in a hard-checking role so vital to the Kraken’s early season success thus far.

No one ever touts defenseman Mahura as a natural goal scorer of any kind. And yet, like his teammates, he put the puck in the net when needed.

“I think we’re just playing hard,” Mahura said. “We’re trying to establish that mentality of being a tough team to play against every night. We’re only five games in, but we like the way it’s trending.”