Kraken vs. Mammoth: Mackie Samoskevich's Late Winner Bails Out Seattle After Another Blown Lead

For the second game in a row, the Seattle Kraken took a multigoal lead into the third period and watched it evaporate. For the second game in a row, they won anyway. At some point this stops being a bug and starts being a personality.

Mackie Samoskevich broke a 3-3 tie with 5:25 left, and the Kraken beat the Utah Mammoth 5-3 on Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena. It came two nights after Seattle blew a 3-0 third-period lead against Detroit before winning in a shootout, which means Kraken fans have now aged several years in one homestand.

A Weird Goal, a Quick Answer and a 3-1 Lead

Jordan Eberle opened the scoring 3:38 in with the kind of goal goalies see in their nightmares. Karel Vejmelka kicked Eberle's shot aside, but the puck rattled off the end boards, struck the goalie in the back and trickled over the line. Physics was not on Utah's side.

The Mammoth answered on the power play at 17:57 after Josh Mahura went off for interference. Kailer Yamamoto won a race to a loose puck below the goal line and backhanded it into the slot, and Vincent Trocheck snapped it in off Philipp Grubauer's blocker.

That tie lasted 26 seconds. Kevin Stenlund took an interference penalty at 18:12, and Seattle's power play went to work. Berkly Catton shook Lawson Crouse with a spin move near the right hash marks, Kaapo Kakko took his feed beside the net, and one cross-crease pass later Matty Beniers was tapping it into a wide-open cage. "Really good deception," Beniers said of Catton's move.

Utah handed Seattle a 5-on-3 early in the second when Yamamoto and Jack McBain went off 94 seconds apart, and Brandon Montour made them pay at 2:23. Montour accepted Eberle's feed up top on the right side, walked into a better lane and hammered a slapper past Vejmelka's glove for a 3-1 lead.

The Turning Point: Two Overturned Goals and One That Counted

The third period was pure chaos. Jared McCann's high-sticking penalty late in the second carried over, and Logan Cooley needed just 27 seconds of the third, getting a piece of a Mikhail Sergachev point shot in midair and redirecting it under Grubauer's glove. It was 3-2, and the building got nervous.

At 1:37, Yamamoto appeared to tie it with another deflection, but video review showed the play was offside and the goal came off the board. Utah did not care. At 7:42, Cooley and Sergachev played catch, and Cooley's one-timer from the high slot slipped by Grubauer's left pad. Tie game, and Seattle's lead had vanished again.

Then it was Seattle's turn to lose one. Bobby McMann seemed to put the Kraken back in front at 8:43, but Utah challenged for offside and won. That could have broken a team that had just watched a two-goal lead disappear.

Instead, McMann stayed on it. At 14:35, McMann got to a loose puck in the blue paint first, and Samoskevich was sliding into space down low on the left side. One pass, one shot, open net, 4-3. "The puck was bouncing everywhere and then came to Bobby (McMann), and he kind of just made a perfect play to me," Samoskevich said. Frederick Gaudreau sealed it with an empty-netter at 19:00.

Stars of the Night

Samoskevich scored his fifth goal in 12:44 of ice time, which is about as efficient as it gets. McMann turned a disallowed goal into an assist on the winner a few minutes later, and he was honest about the overturned one: "I wasn't really thinking about it (potentially being offside), but I got back to the bench and saw it."

Montour had a goal and an assist in 26:38. Per NHL.com, he has eight points in 10 games and has reached at least eight points through 10 games for three straight seasons. Eberle also had a goal and an assist, Beniers scored his third, and Gaudreau now leads the Kraken with six goals, according to the AP. Grubauer made 33 saves on 36 shots and kept Seattle afloat when Utah pushed.

For Utah, Cooley scored twice, and Sergachev had two assists in a massive 26:58. Trocheck scored on the power play, won 18 of 24 faceoffs and threw six hits. Vejmelka made 20 saves on 24 shots, per the box score.

Stats That Matter

• 36-25: Utah's edge in shots. The Mammoth outshot Seattle and still lost by two.
• 2: Goals wiped off the board by offside reviews in the third period, one for each team.
• 2-for-3: Utah's power play. The Mammoth lead the NHL with 15 power-play goals, per NHL.com.
• 30-14: Utah's advantage in hits.
• 56.3: Utah's faceoff percentage, led by Trocheck's big night at the dot.

What It Means

Seattle improves to 7-3-1 with 15 points and has won the first two games of a four-game homestand, according to NHL.com. The Kraken are 3-1-0 at home and host Minnesota on Saturday. Coach Lane Lambert chose to see the bright side of another wild finish. "If you want to look at it from a positive standpoint, we're getting into a position where we're able to give up a multigoal lead and still win," he said.

Utah falls to 7-4-0 with 14 points after winning four of its previous five, per NHL.com. The Mammoth are 4-3-0 on the road and head home to host Tampa Bay on Saturday. "Obviously, a frustrating night," Utah coach Andre Tourigny said, adding that his team "forced the play too much" against a Seattle group that likes to clog the middle.

Final Girl Energy

It is October, so let us call this what it is: a horror movie. Seattle keeps building a lead, the monster keeps getting back up in the third period, and somehow the Kraken keep making it to the end credits. Lambert put it more diplomatically. "What it says about our team's resilience in these situations, it says a lot," he said. Fair enough. But at some point, Seattle might want to try just keeping the lead.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.