*Photo from ABC News*
What a time for your first overtime win am I right? Jared McCann scored to tie the game, Adam Larsson potted the winning goal, and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 2-1 overtime win on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.
The win marks just the 14th of the season for the Kraken, but it's their 4th win in 6 games, and their first overtime win in team history. It was also the first time that Larsson scored in consecutive games in his career, and McCann tied it for the Kraken against his old team.
Leading the charge in net for the Kraken was Philipp Grubauer, who put in one of his best performances of the season. Grubauer turned aside 23 of the 24 shots on goal he faced from the Penguins, posting a .958 save percentage to get the win. Grubauer's record improved to a 11-16-4 mark on the season, totaling 31 starts.
Grubauer said of the game that "We had so many shot opportunities and they blocked a couple. Three or four get through, we're not walking away with two shots. We're walking away with six or seven. You have to stay patient. I think that's the main goal here. Be comfortable in 1-0, 1-1 games. Don't get impatient and start running around. It's going to come no matter what."
The first two periods were rather quiet, lots of aggressive plays by both sides, but neither of them had a goal to show for it. Then, Evgeni Malkin struck in the 3rd period, scoring on the power play 8:41 into the 3rd, his 4th goal of the season, to make it a 1-0 Penguins lead, with assists from Kris Letang and Bryan Rust.
Late in the 3rd period, at the 16:04 mark, McCann struck against his old team, tying the game 1-1 when he scored his 17th goal of the season, assisted by Marcus Johansson and Vince Dunn. In overtime, Larsson scored the game winner when he went top shelf 1:17 into the extra frame, with Calle Jarnkrok and Alex Wennberg getting assists.
Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said of the win that "It's a good win in this building. It's a hard place to win. For us, it's an enjoyable win, but one that we worked for. Our game didn't change a whole lot tonight from the drop of the puck all the way through the winning goal in overtime. That was good to see. Probably one of the things I liked the most was we pushed a little bit in the third period, even at 0-0, without any risk to our game. That's a good characteristic for our team."
For the Penguins, they saw their 6 game win streak come to an end with the overtime loss, despite being able to salvage a point. It was also Pittsburgh's first loss at home since November 27, when they fell to the Montreal Canadiens with a 6-3 loss. Overall, the Penguins are 17-2-1 in their last 20 games, so they are still red hot.
Guarding the goalies crease for Pittsburgh was Tristan Jarry, who had a good night despite the overtime loss. Across regulation and OT, Jarry stopped 27 out of 29 shots he faced from Seattle, good for a .931 save percentage, despite his record dropping to 23-7-5 in 33 starts on the season.
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said that "I thought we could've had a little bit more net traffic and we could've put the puck at the net more than we did playing against a team that defends hard and defends the inside. As far as how we were playing the game, I thought we were playing the right way. We controlled territory. We controlled possession time. I thought, in the third period, we beat ourselves."
Up next, the Penguins conclude a back to back with a Friday matchup with the Detroit Red Wings, with Casey DeSmith in line to start. The Kraken hit the road to face the New York Islanders on Saturday, with Grubauer the likely starter.
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