SEATTLE — The Seattle Kraken erased a three-goal deficit and even led the Ottawa Senators before falling in regulation, 5-4. Their five-game win streak came to a strange end Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena.
The Kraken got another multipoint effort — his fourth in five games — from their hottest scorer. Jared McCann has 10 goals in 14 contests.
Ottawa was up by three before the game was nine minutes old. Kraken defenseman Carson Soucy felt Shane Pinto’s presence on the doorstep and turned to hassle him a moment too late, as Pinto had corralled a rebound and put it past a lunging Philipp Grubauer and into the empty net.
Pinto is one of the NHL rookies chasing Kraken center Matty Beniers in the Calder Trophy race. Pinto’s goal gave him 17 on the season, two short of Beniers’ haul.
The Senators turned a pair of goals 17 seconds apart. Nick Holden lost the puck in his skates but nudged it back to trailing Jakob Chychrun, who beat Grubauer with a rising shot. Grubauer tried to send the puck around the boards and turned it over, barely getting back to the net in time for Patrick Brown’s shot. Grubauer made contact, but the puck bounced past him.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol called his timeout to settle the team but didn’t swap goaltenders.
McCann scored his second short-handed tally of the season to launch the comeback. He went off on a 2-on-1 with Yanni Gourde. McCann’s shot was stopped, but the rebound went straight in off the shin guard of Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot.
The Kraken were within a goal following Jaden Schwartz’ deflection of a Vince Dunn shot. McCann tied the game at three, tracking the puck midair before batting it in.
Dunn gave the Kraken their only short-lived lead of the game. He tucked a shot inside the far post 3:23 into the third period. Thirty-eight seconds later, the Senators tied it, and Alex DeBrincat made it 5-4 with less than three minutes to play.
