Seattle Kraken Aim to Strengthen Western Conference Positioning Against St. Louis

Seattle entered the game Wednesday night holding a wild-card spot in the Western Conference while St. Louis looked to build momentum after roster changes.

The St. Louis Blues cameback from an early deficit and fended off a late push from the Seattle Kraken to secure a 3-2 victory Wednesday night at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and halting their two-game win streak while also tightening the playoff race in the Western Conference.

Seattle struck immediately when forward Jaden Schwartz opened the scoring only 31 seconds into the game. Schwartz, who was assisted by Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn, recorded the fastest goal to start a game for the Kraken this season, which helped to energize the home crowd after taking a 1-0 lead.

The Blues fought back and quickly equalized the game. Defenseman Logan Mailloux tied the game with a wraparound goal with 13:10 left in the first period. Mailloux was assisted by Jimmy Snuggerud and Robert Thomas. Seven minutes into the second period, Dylan Holloway gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead with assists from Cam Fowler and Brayden Schenn. Only a few minutes later came the Blues’ third goal of the night and Robert Thomas’s second point of the game. Thomas was assisted by Broberg and Schenn. From this point forward, the Blues controlled much of the momentum, limiting Seattle’s chances and dictating the pace through the rest of the night.

Blues head coach Jim Montgomery praised his team’s response after being scored on very early:

“We like the way we started to attack, how connected we were entering the zone, and how hard we were going to their net,” Montgomery said during a broadcast interview during the first period.

In the third period, Seattle managed to cut the Blues’ lead down to one when defenseman Vince Dunn scored with six minutes left in the game. Dunn was assisted by Kraken captain Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann. After this, the Kraken applied pressure and ramped it up after a late delay-of-game penalty by Justin Faulk with less than three minutes left in the game. The Kraken, pulling goaltender Philipp Grubauer to take a six-on-four man advantage, saw several scoring chances. Despite these chances, Seattle could not tie the game, and the Blues held on through their defense to take the win.

Throughout the game, both teams struggled with special teams. Both teams went 0-2 on the power play, with Kraken goaltender Grubauer stopping 24/27 shots and Blues goalie Joel Hofer stopping 34/36 shots on net, finishing with an impressive save percentage of 0.944.

The Kraken look forward to rebounding Saturday night when they host the Ottawa Senators, while St. Louis will continue its road trip on Friday night against the San Jose Sharks.