Kraken vs. Flames: Mackie Samoskevich Scores Twice as Seattle Routs Winless Calgary 6-1 in Home Opener

Home openers are supposed to come with a slow build: the pregame show, the anthem, a few nervy shifts while everybody finds their legs. The Seattle Kraken skipped straight to the fireworks. Berkly Catton scored 2:22 in, Mackie Samoskevich followed at 4:40, Bobby McMann made it three at 7:40, and Climate Pledge Arena was a full-blown party before the game was eight minutes old.

Seattle never let up, and the Kraken beat the Calgary Flames 6-1 on Sunday night. Samoskevich scored twice for his first goals with Seattle, Catton had a goal and an assist, Shane Wright and Jordan Eberle also scored, and Joey Daccord made 32 saves. Calgary dropped to 0-3-0.

Three Goals, Seven Minutes, No Mercy

Catton set the tone on a 3-on-2. Kaapo Kakko's pass got broken up by Zach Whitecloud's stick, but the puck popped into Catton's path in the high slot and he wired a wrist shot over Dustin Wolf's glove from the left circle. It took him 28 games to score his first NHL goal as a rookie last season, per NHL.com. This season's first arrived inside three minutes of the home opener. Progress.

Samoskevich's first came off a play that looked like a coin flip. Brandon Montour lofted a high flip out of the Seattle end, the puck landed near the offensive blue line, and Samoskevich won the footrace when Calgary defenseman Kevin Bahl went down. He slid a backhand under Wolf. "I'm glad he fell over, but yeah, it was a good one to start the game," Samoskevich said.

McMann then settled a bouncing puck on the rush and snapped it over Wolf's right shoulder from the left circle. Three goals in 7:40, and the Flames looked like a band that had walked onstage without a set list.

Calgary actually spent long stretches with the puck after that. The Flames finished with more shots on goal (33-27) and more hits (29-21), but Seattle blocked 22 shots and Daccord ate up the rest. In the second period, Wright made it 4-0 at 11:58 with a backhand five-hole from the low slot, taking a pass from Catton with his back to the net. Then, with 26 seconds left in the period, Samoskevich finished a 3-on-3 rush by roofing a Matty Beniers feed over Wolf's blocker. Jared McCann had the second assist.

Calgary finally got on the board on the power play at 14:25 of the third, when Morgan Frost dropped to a knee and redirected a Matvei Gridin pass past Daccord to end the shutout bid. Eberle answered 39 seconds later from the top of the right circle for the 6-1 final.

Samoskevich Makes a Fast First Impression

Seattle paid a real price for Samoskevich. NHL.com noted the Kraken acquired him from the Florida Panthers on June 21 for a first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a conditional second-rounder in 2027. One home game in, the return looks just fine: two goals, 18:49 of ice time and a highlight-reel finish on his second.

Catton was everywhere, adding the slick pass that set up Wright on top of his own goal. "It took a little long last year, so it's nice to get that out of the way," Catton said of getting his first goal of the season. Montour had two assists and a plus-3 in 23:12, and Chandler Stephenson set up two goals while winning 11 of 17 faceoffs.

Daccord was the quiet foundation. He stopped 32 of 33 shots three nights after a 24-save performance in a 6-1 win at Calgary in the opener. He also gave the best review of the atmosphere. "I mean, honestly, the energy was absolutely nuts in the arena tonight. It was so loud," he said.

The Race Calgary Lost

If the Catton goal opened the door, Samoskevich's partial breakaway kicked it off the hinges. The Flames were still within one, and a Calgary stop there might have steadied things. Instead, a long flip turned into a footrace, a defender went down, and the Kraken led 2-0 just over two minutes after scoring the first. From that point, Calgary chased.

Frost described the snowball effect perfectly. "And I feel like one mistake is just leading to another, and we're letting it pile up on us," he said.

Stats That Matter

• 7:40: The time it took Seattle to build a 3-0 lead.
• 33-27: Calgary's edge in shots, which shows how good Daccord and the shot blockers were.
• 22: Blocked shots for Seattle.
• 12: Goals Wolf has allowed across his first two starts, both against Seattle. He stopped 21 of 27 on Sunday.
• 0: Penalties called on Calgary, which meant zero power-play chances for Seattle.

Two Teams, Two Directions

Seattle is 2-1-0 after splitting a season-opening two-game road trip and now owns two 6-1 wins over Calgary in a span of four days. The Kraken host Vegas on Tuesday. Coach Lane Lambert liked how the early surge settled his team. "What it did for us is it allowed us to find some rhythm," he said.

Calgary is 0-3-0, coming off a 4-1 loss at Vancouver on Saturday, and has been outscored 16-3 through three games. Coach Ryan Huska did not dress it up. "It was a tough night, I can say that much," he said, before adding, "I feel like right now we're disconnected." The Flames host Colorado on Thursday, and the AP noted these two teams meet again on Oct. 30.

Closing Take

Forward Joel Farabee delivered the line Calgary needs to tape above the locker room door. "Nobody's coming to save us, so we've got to do it together, and we've got the guys to do it," he said. It is the right message. It is also the kind of thing characters say in the first act of a sports movie, right before the training montage. The Flames have the speech down. Now they need the montage, and they need it before the scoreboard keeps writing the script for them.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes and game notes from NHL.com; additional details as reported by the Associated Press.