SEATTLE — Brandon Montour scored with 32.7 seconds remaining, and the Seattle Kraken recovered after blowing a two-goal lead in the third period for a 5-4 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday.
Off of an offensive-zone face-off, Montour took a pass from Jordan Eberle at the top of the right circle, wound up and fired a slap shot that squeezed through Sergei Bobrovsky’s pads.
“It was just a breakdown, and they’re coming down the (outside) lane,” Toronto’s Auston Matthews said. “A pretty good D-man takes a slap shot right at our goalie.”
Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist, Berkly Catton, Josh Mahura and Ryker Evans scored, and Mackie Samoskevich and Matty Beniers each had two assists for the Kraken (8-4-1), who have won three of four. Philipp Grubauer had 17 saves.
“It was a low-event hockey game, and that's not a bad thing for us,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “So I thought we generated some chances, but I thought we kept it low-event for a reason.
They've got some dynamic players over there, and 5-on-5, we were the better hockey team.”
It was the third time in four games the Kraken have blown a multigoal lead in the third period but recovered to win. But they’re now 8-0-0 in games where they have had a multigoal lead, tied with Boston (8-0-0) and Minnesota (8-0-1) for the most wins in the League in that scenario.
“When you're protecting a lead, you’re being more conservative,” Stephenson said. “You’re trying to obviously defend a little bit better, and sometimes you defend a little bit too much and kind of back yourself into a corner.
I mean it's tough, but the more that you get into situations like that, the better off you are.”
Gavin McKenna had his first two-goal game in the NHL and added an assist for his first three-point game. Matthews had a goal and two assists and Jack Roslovic had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs (7-6-2), who have dropped their past two after winning their previous four.
Darren Raddysh had two assists and Bobrovsky had 12 saves.
“I thought we played a hard third period,” McKenna said. “That’s a good team over there, and I thought both teams played good games, and it comes down to the last 30 seconds.
So it’s a frustrating one, but that’s one we definitely want back.”
Catton made it 1-0 at 1:59 of the first period, deking around Toronto defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the slot and chipping a backhander past Bobrovsky’s glove. The shot hit the crossbar but bounced off Bobrovsky’s pants and in.
McKenna tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 19:14 when Matthews passed from the bottom of the right circle to McKenna at the right dot, and he snapped it off the far post and in.
“On the power play, for sure,” Toronto coach Jim Hiller said when asked if he saw chemistry between McKenna and Matthews. “At 5-on-5, I didn’t think they did all that much, to be honest with you.
But definitely on the power play, and then 6-on-5… Beautiful goals on the power play, no question.”
Mahura put the Kraken back ahead 2-1 16 seconds into the second period, finishing a 2-on-1 rush with Ben Meyers with a one-timer into an open net from the left circle.
“(It was a) well-executed breakout by us that we talk about, and then, obviously, a great wall play there, and then Ben making an excellent play,” Mahura said. “Just had kind of an open net that I just had to put it into.”
McKenna scored his second power-play goal to tie it again 2-2 at 1:46, one-timing Matthews’ no-look pass from the slot to the right circle past Grubauer’s left skate.
“I think when you’re playing with a guy like (Matthews), it makes it pretty easy,” McKenna said. “He’s an unbelievable player, he sees the ice really well.
I think teams favor him a little bit with his shot, and it might open up a little bit of space for me. So he’s fun to play with, and I thought we played well.”
Stephenson scored a power-play goal to make it 3-2 at 3:33 when his pass from the top of the right circle intended for Beniers bounced off Toronto defenseman Troy Stecher’s skate and past Bobrovsky’s right pad.
“The special teams battle, that’s kind of something you want to win every night,” Stephenson said. “Usually when you’re on the losing side of that, you’re losing the hockey game…
So obviously, for them to get two early and for us to get one back was huge. And I think it helped us keep our momentum and keep our energy up.”
Evans pushed it to 4-2 off a rush at 10:58, taking a pass from Samoskevich at the blue line, racing in and snapping it off the far post and in from the left dot.
“It was very impressive. Impressive enough that I didn’t even know it went in,” Samoskevich said of Evans’ shot.
“He's a great player. I think he's playing really good right now.
I think everyone's playing really good, and when we play at that speed, we’re hard to play against.”
Roslovic cut it to 4-3 at 8:02 of the third period. Playing 4-on-4, Easton Cowan sent a wrist shot from the top of the slot which hit Grubauer’s pad and skipped to Roslovic in the left circle.
Roslovic snapped it under the crossbar.
Matthews tied it 4-4 from the bottom of the right circle with 1:30 left in the third and the Maple Leafs skating 6-on-5 with an empty net, one-timing Raddysh’s pass from the point under Grubauer.
“It’s tough. I think despite not being that pretty of a game, you work so hard to get yourself back in it and tie the game up and hopefully come out of here with at least one point,” Matthews said.
“It definitely stings, but I think there’s nothing we can do now. We’ve got to play one more game here on this road trip and do our best to come out of there with two points.”
NOTES: Catton extended his point streak to five games (six points; two goals, four assists) and joined Beniers as the second Kraken player with a five-game point streak at the age of 20 or younger. Beniers did it four times, with the longest streak six games in 2022-23.
McKenna (18 years, 312 days) became the youngest Maple Leafs player with a multigoal game since Jack Hamilton on Feb. 19, 1944 (18 years, 262 days).
He also became the 11th teenager in Maple Leafs history to record 10 career points in 15 games or fewer. Only two others have done so in the past 40 years: Matthews (six games in 2016-17) and Mitch Marner (12 games in 2016-17).
Seattle forward Jani Nyman made his season debut after being recalled from Coachella Valley of the AHL on Saturday. He had one shot on goal in 8:42.
Forward Bobby McMann played his first game against the Maple Leafs since Toronto traded him to Seattle on March 6. He had four shots on goal in 19:05.
