Another night of overcoming third period setbacks gave the Kraken a pivotal Wednesday night victory that enabled them to cap an impressive first portion of an extended homestand.
The Kraken blew a multi-goal, third period lead for the fourth time already this season but once again avoided disaster when Brandon Montour slapped one home from the right circle. Montour’s goal with just 32.7 seconds left in regulation time gave the Kraken a huge 5-4 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs and a third victory in four tries during a prolonged stretch of games at home.
Auston Matthews had tied the game for Toronto with just 90 seconds remaining in regulation, the third lead the Kraken had given up on the night. It was also the sixth third period lead the Kraken have blown this season but they’ve managed to snag points in all of them.
The Kraken twice blew leads the opening half of the game by allowing a pair of power play goals to dynamic top rookie Gavin McKenna. But they responded quickly enough after the second tying marker, getting a go-ahead strike that middle frame by Chandler Stephenson and then another from Ryker Evans.
But Jack Roslovic scored for Toronto to narrow the lead to just one goal ahead of Matthews getting the late equalizer.
Berkly Catton and Josh Mahura also scored for the Kraken, now 8-4-1, who play Friday night in Calgary, then return back to Climate Pledge Arena to face the Flames and New York Rangers next week before heading to Finland immediately after for a pair of matchups there.
The Kraken knew coming into this key matchup that they needed to avoid the vaunted Maple Leafs power play as much as possible. The Leafs entered with the league’s fifth best power play efficiency rate at 28.9% and wasted little time putting it on display.
Catton had given the Kraken a lead just two minutes after the opening faceoff, making a nice keep-in at Toronto’s blue line, dishing it to Mackie Samoskevich and then taking a return pass. He stickhandled through the left faceoff circle, into the high slot and fired a solid backhand behind Leafs netminder Sergei Bobrovsky.
But the Kraken, despite chances to increase that margin, couldn’t carry the lead into intermission. Catton took a penalty for holding an opponent’s stick late in the period and the Maple Leafs capitalized after a failed clearance attempt.
McKenna took a quick pass in the right faceoff circle and buried it behind Philipp Grubauer to tie the game with just 46 seconds to go in the period.
But the Kraken wasted little time restoring their lead just 16 seconds after the second period’s opening faceoff. Ben Meyers broke in 2-on-1 and fed a cross-ice pass to Mahura to fire home for another Kraken lead.
It was Mahura’s first goal in almost exactly a year since scoring an overtime winner against the Maple Leafs in Toronto last October. He’d previously gone 134 games without a goal after scoring in January 2023 against Toronto as well.
But Mahura’s latest bit of Maple Leafs feasting didn’t last long as Evans took a hooking penalty just 63 seconds later and McKenna scored again from the exact same location off a Matthews feed to tie it 2-2.
But the Kraken answered right away this time, with Stephenson taking the puck in the right circle and firing a pass in front for Matty Beniers. The puck redirected off a Toronto defender and into the net to restore the Kraken lead fewer than two minutes after the Leafs’ equalizer.
And Evans would give the Kraken a needed multi-goal cushion right at the period’s 11-minute mark, taking a Samoskevich pass at the top of the left circle and picking the far corner on Bobrovsky
