Mackie Samoskevich scored the tiebreaking goal at 14:35 of the third period and goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 33 saves as the Seattle Kraken defeated the visiting Utah Mammoth 5-3 on Thursday.
Jordan Eberle and Brandon Montour had a goal and an assist apiece and Matty Beniers and Frederick Gaudreau also tallied for the Kraken, who improved to 5-1-1 in their past seven games.
Logan Cooley scored twice, Vincent Trocheck added a goal and Mikhail Sergachev had two assists for the Mammoth, who had won four of their previous five. Karel Vejmelka stopped 18 of 22 shots.
Samoskevich’s winner came after Vejmelka made a save on a Bobby McMann shot on a 2-on-1 rush. Montour tracked down the rebound in the left corner and sent a pass through the slot to McMann, who found Samoskevich alone near the right post to tap the puck into a vacated net.
Gaudreau clinched the victory with an empty-netter at 19:00.
Trailing 3-1, the Mammoth pulled within a goal on a power-play strike by Cooley just 27 seconds into the third period. Cooley tipped over Grubauer’s shoulder a shot by Sergachev from between the top of the faceoff circles.
Cooley evened the score at 3-3 at 7:42 on a slap shot from just outside the top of the faceoff circles past a screened Grubauer and into the lower right corner of the net.
The Kraken opened the scoring with a fluke goal at 3:38 of the first period. Defenseman Ryker Evans sent a stretch pass down the right wing for Eberle, who took a slap shot from just outside the top of the faceoff circle, with Vejmelka making a skate save. The puck ricocheted off the end boards, over the crossbar and hit the goalie in the back before trickling into the net.
The teams then traded power-play goals late in the period.
Utah tied it at 17:57. Kailer Yamamoto tracked down a loose puck behind the Kraken net and sent a no-look, backhanded pass to Trocheck, who lifted a shot over Grubauer from the bottom of the left faceoff circle.
Seattle regained the lead at 18:23. Berkly Catton kept the puck in the offensive zone and passed to Kaapo Kakko along the goal line on the right wing. Kakko sent a backhanded pass across the top of the crease to Beniers, who tipped it in.
The Kraken increased their lead to 3-1 on Montour’s slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle on a 5-on-3 advantage at 2:23 of the second, off an assist from Eberle.
