Grubauer Comes Off Bench To Key Kraken Win

One bright note in an otherwise grim injury relief situation for Philipp Grubauer on Saturday night was that he got the first intermission to gather himself only 17 seconds after coming on to replace Matt Murray.

Grubauer used the time to head to a back room to perform hand-eye co-ordination exercises in lieu of simply “looking at the clock” and counting down the minutes until the second period. Those came in handy as he stonewalled the visiting San Jose Sharks throughout an ensuing early blitz and kept things tied until two Kraken goals 38 seconds apart late in the middle frame cued an eventual 4-1 victory in which Grubauer stopped all 19 shots directed his way.

“I think going into the second period there right away, the way the first two minutes went were not ideal for us as a team,” said Grubauer, who faced six of his 14 shots against that period the first two-plus minutes. “But it got me into the game having a lot of shots early on. It’s always tough if you’re not starting. It’s a situation where you don’t get too many shots in the warm-up right? So, it was helpful to get into the game right away and then I took it from there.”

Indeed, he did, flopping around at his acrobatic best to ward off a seemingly unrelenting San Jose storm before Adam Larsson snapped a go-ahead goal through traffic in the period’s final four minutes followed by Eeli Tolvanen converting a 2-on-1 pass from Chandler Stephenson off the ensuing faceoff. Jaden Schwartz, who’d opened the scoring off a net front pass by Stephenson in the first period, scored his second of the night on an empty net in the closing minutes to help the Kraken improve to a franchise record 9-4-5 mark and 23 points to start the season.

The Kraken now embark on a four-city road trip after a 2-0-1 homestand seemingly headed in the wrong direction after an overtime loss to Columbus earlier in the week. Instead, a valiant comeback victory against Winnipeg and then vanquishing a Sharks team that obliterated the Kraken 6-1 at Climate Pledge Arena just 10 days ago seemed to get a moribund offense untracked just in time.

Murray was still being evaluated postgame for a lower body injury suffered when former Kraken forward Alex Wennberg tied the game on a power play pass from Macklin Celebrini in the closing seconds of the first period. The potential loss of Murray should be mitigated somewhat by the anticipated return of Joey Daccord from an injury he suffered the last time the Sharks came in here and toyed with the home team.

Any longer absence for Murray, who was outstanding his past few outings coming off double-hip surgery from two years ago, will also be helped if Grubauer keeps playing like he did this game and in the prior Winnipeg victory. His early work that second period denied the Sharks at least two certain goals.

“They were probably quicker on pucks, outskating us there a little bit,” Grubauer said. “And they won a couple of 50-50 puck battles, and we couldn’t execute the play to get out of our zone. Sometimes that happens and we got stuck there for a minute and a half.”

Truth be told, the Sharks looked dangerous beyond just the period’s opening minutes, aided by some of the six minor penalties taken by the Kraken this game. Grubauer was sensational throughout the middle frame, stoning Will Smith on a breakaway midway through by staying with the young forward’s deke moves and fully extending his pad to keep the puck out.

Smith on his follow-through managed to knock puck into the net with his skate, but the goal was immediately waved off. The initial on-ice call was upheld after a rather lengthy video review.

It wasn’t until Mason Marchment got in front of San Jose netminder Alex Nedeljkovic as the period wound down that things finally shifted in the Kraken’s favor. Marchment dished the puck off to Larsson at the right point and then blocked the goalie’s view of the defenseman’s ensuing snapper that made it all the way through to put the Kraken ahead to stay.

Then, in the type of Kraken offensive momentum swing rarely seen this season, Stephenson, all over the ice this game, found himself breaking in 2-on-1 with Tolvanen. Defenseman Dmitry Orlov got a piece of Stephenson’s cross-ice pass, but not enough to prevent Tolvanen from one-timing it behind Nedeljkovic to put the Kraken ahead by two.

Stephenson felt the earlier Grubauer saves were “the turning point in the game” that allowed an improving offense to get firing anew. He attributed the team’s nine-goal output the past two games to greater familiarity between Kraken teammates and with some of the squad’s new systems.

The Kraken prior to that were averaging just 2.5 goals per contest, the league’s second-worst mark.

“The more games you play, the better you feel,” Stephenson said. “You’re just more familiar. You’re not thinking as much. Earlier on, with new systems and stuff, you’re just thinking about where you should be. All that stuff. So, right now, it’s just reaction. Guys are in the right spots, making the right plays.”

Stephenson’s assist on the opening Schwartz goal was one of those reaction type plays as he sped down the right side past a fallen defender and threw his pass net front knowing the veteran winger would be there.

“A hard-nosed goal by him,” Stephenson said. “That’s his style.”

Tolvanen said “a really good pass from Stephenson” effectively left him with an open net in which to score his third goal this season. All three Tolvanen goals came within a week’s span, a further sign parts of this offense are starting to click.

“We’ve talked a little bit about getting more to the net, shooting the puck a little more and creating chance off shots,” Tolvanen said. “And I think that’s what we’ve done a very good job of. Defensemen are getting the pucks through, and forwards are working hard to get there. Just like (Adam) Larsson’s goal today. It’s not the hardest shot but when there’s guys at the net front screening the goalie they go in.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert felt the team was showing signs of an offensive breakthrough even before scoring nine times in two games.

“It’s easy to focus on games where you score one goal and you’re not scoring,” he said. “But we did have opportunities in those games. It’s not like we were completely inept. Tonight, and the last game they’ve gone in. We just have to continue building and trying to do the right things.”

And they need goalies to continue keeping pucks out long enough to buy the offense time. Lambert admitted this game was far from perfect, but Grubauer’s “outstanding” play off the bench certainly afforded the Kraken a bigger margin for error.

“The way we started the second period and really, throughout his minutes that he played Grubi played a fantastic game,” Lambert said.

And with that detail nailed, the Kraken played well enough to win yet again. This homestand may not go down as a season turning point. But it certainly ended far more optimistically than it began for Grubauer and company.

“We had a couple of meetings,” Grubauer said. “We need to score goals and how can we get better? We’re looking at everything – D-zone, offense. We worked on that in practice and that’s what we learned from and got better at.”