Kraken Rally For Late Point In OT Loss

Even Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour knew his latest voodoo hex effort on the visiting squad here Tuesday night was fortunate to snag a lone point from a contest his team was largely outplayed in.

So, Montour did indeed accept the point from a 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens and vowed to fight on stronger another day. He’s been a one-man wrecking crew against Montreal the past two seasons and scoring two of three Kraken goals in a third period comeback rally only added to that legend ahead of Cole Caufield pulling it out for the Canadiens in the extra session.

“It’s nice to get a point but we’d like to obviously create more throughout the game,” said Montour, who now has seven goals and five assists in four games against Montreal while playing for the Kraken.

Caufield’s second goal of the night, on a wraparound against Joey Daccord just 43 seconds into overtime, was his franchise record 11^th overtime winner. It handed the Kraken their first home loss of the season and helped the Canadiens avoid a shocking Climate Pledge Arena collapse for the second straight game here.

Last March, the Canadiens had a 4-2 third period lead when the Kraken rallied to tie it late and then won in overtime when Montour scored an NHL record four seconds after the extra session began. That lost point for Montreal almost cost them a playoff spot as they failed to clinch until the final day.

This time around, the Kraken trailed 3-0 after first period goals by Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky and another by Alex Newhook early in the third. Montreal backup goalie Jakub Dobes had barely broken a sweat, facing only 10 mostly harmless shots the opening two periods ahead of a final frame kick save on Matty Beniers just ahead of the Kraken rally beginning.

“We had just no energy really,” Montour said. “It seemed like we were tired. They have a young, fast team. They maintained most of the possession time. You know, it’s tough at 3-0 to get a point. But you see the confidence. You see how we were the last 10 minutes there. It’s good to get a point.”

That final push saw the Kraken finally get some traffic in front of Dobes ahead of some crucial shots, first on a Montour power play point blast that got the Kraken on the board on a night they hadn’t looked good at all with the man advantage. Not long after that, Kirby Dach slammed Kraken forward Ben Meyers into the end boards from behind. Jani Nyman immediately went after him and the rest of the on-ice Kraken players joined the heated scrum, seeming to wake up a bit in the process.

When play resumed at 4-on-4 after dual roughing penalties, the Kraken capitalized on the open ice with Shane Wright one-timing Montour’s pass from the high slot to draw his team within a goal. Wright said Nyman going after Dach seemed to create the spark the Kraken needed to push for the equalizer.

“Yeah for sure,” he said. “It’s a teammate standing up for a teammate. All five guys were in there. I think that definitely gave us a spark for sure. It’s nice to see teammates sticking up for each other like that.”

The Kraken pulled Daccord in the final two minutes and Montour struck again with another point blast through traffic to send the arena faithful into a frenzy. In some ways, the point here from a game they likely should have lost in regulation does ease some sting from overtime and shootout defeats in Montreal and Ottawa the past road trip they were likely deserving of two points apiece in.

Wright and company will take their team’s 5-2-3 mark after an opening 10-game gauntlet now complete that featured eight playoff squads from last season. That grueling stretch of formidable foes, including victories over probably Stanley Cup contenders Vegas, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton, may have contributed to the team’s somewhat lethargic play here the opening 40 minutes.

“We were just off tonight,” Wright said. “We weren’t making plays, weren’t handling pucks and we just weren’t creating much offensively.”

Not until the very end, at least. Kraken coach Lane Lambert felt Nyman’s response to Dach’s hit “was fantastic” and provided an energy boost the team desperate needed after not bringing enough of one the first two periods.

Lambert also felt the Kraken began taking more shots towards the end instead of passing the puck around in search of a perfect opportunity.

“We’ve started games well pretty consistently so far in this season,” Lambert said. “But this was not one of them. And we can’t afford to do that.”

Lambert lauded Montour’s continued “elite” play after time away from the team to deal with the death of his brother, Cameron, last week. Montour also did not play at all in preseason after undergoing ankle surgery but has continued to look sharp every time out.

“He’s doing a great job considering,” Lambert said.

So are the Kraken in securing points most times out. Montour knows this team has a higher gear and could have done more against Montreal had it played the first two periods the way it did the last half of the third.

“Kudos to them but I don’t think they did much to change how we played,” Montour said. “I think it was just us and our mindset. Lane (Lambert) preached to kind of be ready and be prepared and I think right off the hop we were kind of flat and didn’t generate much.”

He added: “If you don’t score, you’ve got to create something for your team. We got one (point) late in the game, but I think we can create more.”