Final Buzzer: No Lou-sing to the Blues

ST. LOUIS, MO - The Kraken knew they had what it takes to end the three-game losing streak that had trailed them of late and, in St. Louis, they put together the pieces to earn a 5-3 win and earn points against the Blues in three consecutive games.
There were moments both tactical and personal in this one. Kraken defender Vince Dunn skated in his 400th professional game in the only other city for which he has played NHL hockey. Another former Blue, Jaden Schwartz, skated in his first game in the Enterprise Center in another team's jersey. Schwartz had missed the only other time Seattle had been there last season due to injury.

But those emotions were set aside once play began. The Kraken started slow, and had some ebbs and flows in special teams' play, but ultimately two goals from Morgan Geekie, and scores by Jared McCann, Jamie Oleksiak and Brandon Tanev were enough to secure a 5-3 victory and leap back into the third spot in the Western Conference.
"(St. Louis) kept pushing," McCann said. "You got to show respect to them. They competed, they battled, but we were able to shut (them) down and that's the games that we have to focus on learning from and seeing what we can do better especially late in games. We can't let off the gas.
"it's gonna be a grind every single game from now on. We've got to go to play like the underdogs every single day. We've got to put in the effort every single night. We've got to out-battle teams and out-compete teams."
What stood out? Let's dig in.

Geek Squad

Starting games the right way is something the Kraken have prioritized. After the puck dropped, the offense had a sleepy start. There wasn't much sustained time in the offensive zone, and the Blues had eight shots on target while Seattle had just one. But Geekie had something to say about that. Adam Larsson laid a key block on Nikita Alexandrov as he went for a loose puck along the boards in the Kraken's zone. Daniel Sprong jumped on the opportunity and sent a backhand pass to a streaking Geekie in the neutral zone. Geekie and Brandon Tanev were off on a 2-on-1 rush and the two-time winner of the Kraken's hardest shot competition wasted no time in beating Jordan Binnington high for the first goal of the game.

From there, Seattle owned the momentum and allowed just three shots on goal by St. Louis while piling up six of their own.
And Geekie wasn't done. He continued to do it all. The Blues tied it up twice (we'll get to that) but Geekie got the go-ahead third goal of the game. First, he won the faceoff with just over six-and-a-half minutes to play. Then he went straight to net front. After Justin Schultz fired a shot from the top of the zone, Sprong once again set up his linemate by redirecting the puck to Geekie for his second of the game.

"The release on his first shot is outstanding," Dave Hakstol said. "He gets that thing away and puts it in the right spot. You don't beat Binnington with many of those but, he got it off quick and he put it in a great spot. The second one, go to the net good things happen."

Unplugged

There was good and bad news for Kraken special teams.
First, the less than good. Coming into this game, the Kraken had never scored a power-play goal against the Blues. Although they got four chances with the extra skater, that statistic held true once again. Unfortunately, Seattle not only didn't score, but they also allowed a short-handed goal against in the second period. The Blues got on the scoreboard for the first time during the initial Kraken power play. The goal came in a very similar fashion to Geekie's goal except this time it was Pavel Buchnevich who got possession off a board battle and fed Robert Thomas on the rush for the score, tying the game 1-1.
The Blues' second goal also came off the rush. The Kraken couldn't retain possession with the puck below the goal line. With Dunn going for a line change, Nick Leddy had an open passing lane to send a stretch pass up the ice to Brandon Saad. Dunn recovered and raced back to challenge Saad but the winger was still able to beat Martin Jones to put the game at 2-2 with 10:57 to play in the second.
The good news? The Kraken remain perfect on the penalty kill through seven straight games killing off all four penalties they took. (Note that McCann did knock wood when asked about this in his post-game availability)
In addition, the Kraken scored their second of the game just as the first power play expired. Five seconds after to be exact. So, while it will go down as an even-strength tally, it came with Seattle still set up in their power play formation and Tyler Pitlick, the offending Blues skater, racing from the penalty box to rejoin the play. Seattle moved the puck right to left across the umbrella - Eeli Tolvanen passing to Dunn who sent it to McCann who wasted no time in firing from one of his favorite spots on the ice to beat a screened Binnington (thanks to Alex Wennberg) five-hole. That's a shot location where the Blues goalie has been beaten more times than any other netminder in the NHL allowing 27 goals against.

"Our specialty teams did the job," Hakstol said. "Our power play doesn't get credit with the goal but that's a power play goal. So that was a big goal for us. PK did a good job. We don't get out of the second period the way we did without doing a good job on the three PK's plus the one at a critical time in the third period. So those are all good positive things ... we made a mistake on their third goal just by not stopping in the right spot. But other than that we didn't make a lot of errors certainly no unforced errors in terms of a defensive play."

One for the Books

In a season where the Kraken are surpassing the expectations of many, the Kraken skaters were sure to put a little more ink in their personal record books.
Every goal scored by the Kraken tonight contributed to player bests.
Geekie tallied his first multi-goal game as a Kraken skater. With the assist, Larsson tied his career high in points (25), a marker he earned last year but in 22 more games. McCann tied a career-high in goals (again, something that happened last season).
And then, with 10:14 to play in the game, Tolvanen fired a shot at Binnington. It was stopped, but Ryan Donato collected the rebound, skating behind the net to set up Oleksiak in the right circle. Oleksiak scored his eighth goal of the season marking his 17th point, again tying a career-high.
"Everybody is chipping in," Hakstol said. "When you look at a win tonight. I don't know who you give credit to off of this win tonight. I love Gordy's effort and his line tonight. I believe he led the way for us in the compete and effort category, but we had a lot of guys that stepped up and made plays at the right time."
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Buchnevich added a third Blues goal late in the third period but the Blues couldn't complete the multi-goal comeback even though they've done that in the third period three times before this season. Tanev added an empty netter in the final seconds to seal the deal.

By the Numbers

Here's a look at our data-driven Instant Analysis from Sportlogiq (click
HERE
for how to read this graphic):