Kraken climb out of a 3-1 hole and finish Flames 4-3 in shootout

Calgary had the cleaner start

The Flames built their lead in tidy, measurable steps. Jonathan Castagna opened the scoring at 10:02 of the first period on a wrist shot set up by Brennan Othmann and Dryden Hunt. Seattle answered before the intermission when Bobby McMann scored at 15:34 from Jordan Eberle and Chandler Stephenson, but Calgary regained control almost immediately after the restart.

Rory Kerins restored the edge 1:38 into the second, finishing a play from Alexander Nylander and Sam Morton, and Aydar Suniev pushed the Flames ahead 3-1 at 6:05 with Othmann and William Stromgren assisting. That stretch was the clearest version of Calgary's best hockey in this game: quick scoring, balanced contributions and enough pressure to finish with a 35-26 advantage in shots. Othmann's two-assist night mattered because it tied the early scoring together, first on Castagna's opener and then again on Suniev's second-period goal.

Defensemen dragged Seattle back into it

Seattle's comeback did not wait long into the third. Montour scored at 1:26 with Beniers and Jared McCann on the setup, cutting the deficit to one and changing the shape of the night. Just over six minutes later, Evans tied it at 7:31, again with Beniers involved. When a team gets both comeback goals from its defense corps, it usually means the blue line is doing more than keeping the play moving; it is driving the result. Montour's 28:13 of ice time and Evans' 25:45 underline how much Seattle leaned on them.

Beniers deserves equal billing in that push. He assisted on both third-period goals, then added a shootout conversion later. Seattle did not win this with sheer shot volume; Calgary had nine more shots by night's end. The Kraken won it by getting decisive plays from their most influential skaters and by getting enough stops from Philipp Grubauer to survive the parts of the game that belonged to Calgary.

Grubauer finished with 32 saves and a .914 save percentage, and that edge over Devin Cooley's 23 saves and .885 mattered in a one-goal game that reached a shootout after a scoreless overtime. In the tiebreaker, Beniers and Berkly Catton scored for Seattle, while Suniev was Calgary's lone successful shooter. That was the last turn in a game Seattle had spent two periods trying to retrieve.

Our take: the comeback is real, but the penalties are a warning

Seattle earned the praise that comes with this kind of win. A team down 3-1 entering the third does not always find two clean answers, and the Kraken found theirs quickly. Our take: the most encouraging detail was who supplied them. Montour and Evans gave Seattle offense from the back end, while Beniers touched both regulation goals in the rally and the shootout as well. That is what recovery looks like when it comes from players carrying major minutes rather than a random bounce.

The caution for Seattle is just as plain in the numbers. The Kraken took 11 penalties for 44 minutes, and Calgary received five power-play opportunities. Even with the comeback complete, that is an avoidable burden. Calgary turned one of those chances into a power-play goal, and a different game can easily slip away if that imbalance continues. If Seattle wants fewer nights spent chasing, staying out of the box is the simplest improvement supported by what happened here.

Calgary, meanwhile, has every reason to be annoyed by the result without pretending it played poorly from start to finish. The Flames had three regulation goal scorers, outshot Seattle 35-26 and got two assists from Othmann. But they also finished with 21 giveaways, and the two goals that erased the lead came from Seattle defensemen in the first 7:31 of the third. Our take: that combination points to puck management as the first place to look. When you generate that many shots and still lose after leading by two, the missing piece is often not effort but control of the game once the lead is yours.

In the end, this one was decided by the players who changed direction, not the ones who established it. Calgary authored the stronger first 40 minutes. Seattle authored the finish. In a 4-3 shootout game, that distinction is everything.

Scoring moments

1. 1st · 10:02

   Jonathan Castagna Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Brennan Othmann (1), Dryden Hunt (1)

2. 1st · 15:34

   Bobby McMann Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Jordan Eberle (1), Chandler Stephenson (1)

3. 2nd · 1:38

   Rory Kerins Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Alexander Nylander (1), Sam Morton (1)

4. 2nd · 6:05

   Aydar Suniev Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Brennan Othmann (2), William Stromgren (1)

5. 3rd · 1:26

   Brandon Montour Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Matty Beniers (1), Jared McCann (1)

6. 3rd · 7:31

   Ryker Evans Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Matty Beniers (2)

7. SO · 0:00

   Matty Beniers Goal Wrist Shot

8. SO · 0:00

   Berkly Catton Goal Wrist Shot

9. SO · 0:00

   Aydar Suniev Goal Backhand