The Seattle Kraken launched into their first season within the Nationwide Hockey League on Tuesday, dropping a hard-fought contest 4-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights, the second youngest group after becoming a member of the league 4 years in the past.
The Kraken stumbled out of the gate Tuesday giving up the primary three objectives of the sport however then clawed their method again to tie it earlier than Vegas’ Chandler Stephenson scored the go-ahead purpose on a controversial play within the third interval.
Regardless of the one-goal loss, Seattle despatched a message to the remainder of the NHL that they anticipate to be aggressive.
The Kraken contest was one in every of two NHL video games on faucet on the opening evening of the 2021-22 season. Within the different sport, the Pittsburgh Penguins put a damper on Tampa Bay’s Stanley Cup festivities by routing the Lightning 6-2.
When it got here to brand-new groups within the NHL, dropping was the norm. That’s till the Golden Knights rewrote the playbook for growth groups and made all of it the best way to the Stanley Cup finals of their inaugural 2017-18 season.
The Kraken are the NHL’s thirty second group and can compete within the Pacific Division. They play their first 5 video games on the highway earlier than internet hosting the Vancouver Canucks of their first house sport on Oct. 23.
Ryan Donato scored the primary purpose in Kraken historical past midway via the second interval from instantly in entrance of the Vegas web. Donato took a few swipes at a unfastened puck, finally jamming it previous Knights goaltender Robin Lehner.
That sparked a rally as Jared McCann scored 72 seconds later to chop the Vegas result in 3-2. Morgan Geekie tied it 3-3 with a excessive sharp angle shot within the third interval, setting the stage for Stephenson’s controversial winner with 11:27 left within the third.
Stephenson skated round a Kraken defender then lower to the online permitting the go throughout from a teammate to deflect off the skin of his skate and in. The play went to video evaluation which confirmed Stephenson pushed the puck in with the skin of his skate however didn’t intentionally kick it.
In Tampa, Danton Heinen and Brian Boyle scored second-period objectives for the Penguins, who had a dozen gamers file not less than one level.
Pittsburgh beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning regardless of enjoying with out all-stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Standout Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed three objectives on 32 pictures, whereas Penguin netminder Tristan Jarry made 26 saves.
Tampa Bay acquired third interval objectives from Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn because the Lightning misplaced for the primary time in eight season openers.
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