Grubauer and Zegras Heat Up as Kraken Edge Flyers in Shootout

It wasn't pretty, and the Seattle Kraken probably know it. They let a two-goal lead slip away, then pulled out a 3-2 shootout win over the Philadelphia Flyers. The result kept Philadelphia's historic season-opening winless streak alive. The Flyers fell to 0-5-3 and heard plenty of boos from a home crowd that wasn't big to begin with. Seattle, meanwhile, won its third straight to open a five-game road trip and moved to 5-2-0.

Coach Lane Lambert didn't sugarcoat the first two periods. "Coming out of the second intermission, I didn't like our play until the score was 2-2 in the third period," he said. "We've got to clean that up and keep playing on our toes. There were times we should have been forechecking, and we were backing up. It's just not going to work, and it was pretty clear." He did like one thing: the response after the tying goal, which echoed the way his team bounced back in Sunday's 5-3 win over Washington.

Bobby McMann and Ville Ottavainen found the back of the net in regulation, but the story belonged to the Seattle goaltender.

Grubauer and Zegras turn a goalie-forward matchup into a feud

Philipp Grubauer has looked sharper this season, and he's also shown he won't absorb every bit of traffic from opposing players. After a heated stretch in Seattle's 3-1 loss at Edmonton, where several contact moments ended in a scrum involving Max Jones, it was fair to wonder whether his temper would stay in check. Against Philadelphia, he made that question moot. He stopped 24 of 26 shots, several of them the kind of high-danger chances that usually decide these games.

The trouble started early. In the first period, Zegras poked at a rebound Grubauer had just smothered. They exchanged words from a distance, and it almost looked like Zegras was apologizing. He tapped Grubauer's shoulder with a gloved hand after the whistle and skated off calmly. Any cordiality disappeared in the second period.

With 14:00 gone in the frame, Grubauer dropped into his butterfly to stop a Zegras shot. The whistle didn't come right away, and Zegras went after the loose puck. Grubauer hesitated, looked around, and then Zegras jabbed at him. Grubauer swatted at Zegras' shin pads, several Kraken players flooded in, and the scene turned chaotic. Only Zegras was penalized, which tells you how the officials saw the sequence.

Seconds after Zegras returned from the box following a successful Flyers penalty kill, he got another look from the top of the right circle. Grubauer gloved it, waited for the whistle, and then flipped the puck toward Zegras in a pointed, almost mocking way. Zegras chipped it back and skated into the crease to get right in Grubauer's face. Grubauer responded, and another post-whistle tangle developed in front of the net.

Here's the thing: the rivalry added heat, but it didn't swing the game. It was a sideshow to a goalie who stayed composed in the crease for most of the night. Grubauer had the final word on the ice, too, shutting down Zegras, Tyson Foerster, Porter Martone and Denver Barkey, while Beniers and McMann converted in the shootout.

The night also had a second act. After Seattle took a 2-0 lead into the third period, Christian Dvorak cut it to 2-1 at 6:07. Zegras answered 1:13 later, slipping into a quiet pocket at the top of the slot to tie the game 2-2. That's the kind of stretch that shakes a team, and Seattle needed a response. It got one.

Walking into Xfinity Mobile Arena on Tuesday, nobody expected a goalie-forward beef to be the most entertaining subplot. It was, though, and Grubauer was the one who gave the Kraken a chance to win it.

McMann's timing keeps the Kraken in front

McMann's season has tracked close to what Seattle hoped for when he became a full-time Kraken. He hasn't scored every night, the way he seemed to after arriving following last season's trade deadline, but he has a habit of popping up with a timely goal. That pattern showed up again against the Flyers.

The first came on the power play at 7:57 of the opening period. Jordan Eberle tried a jam at the side of the net, and Simon Benoit broke it up. The puck squirted to the right circle and wobbled onto McMann's stick. He didn't hesitate and snapped it past Dan Vladar to put Seattle up 1-0.

He also decided the shootout. McMann swung wide with speed, slowed as he approached Vladar, waited for the goalie to commit, and chipped the puck over his blocker in the fifth round. That kind of composure is what separates a useful depth scorer from a player a coach trusts in a close game.

Ottavainen's first NHL goal, and what it means for the bottom pair

There's nothing quite like watching a player score his first NHL goal. Ottavainen took a pass from Mackie Samoskevich at the point and fired a shot through a screen set by Beniers. The puck went in, and the smile that followed was the biggest we've seen from him. Then his teammates mobbed him, and he looked like a player still getting used to being the center of attention.

"It's like a surreal moment," Ottavainen said. "Everything kind of freezes for a second after I shot that puck, and then you just see the net go off, and it's like... I don't know, it's a great feeling."

The 24-year-old has been a long time coming. He's been viewed as a player on the edge of establishing himself for years, and he's now part of a three-man rotation for the bottom defensive pair with Josh Mahura and Cale Fleury. On this road trip, he's earned more trust from Lambert and the staff. He has played three straight games alongside Mahura, all Seattle wins, while Fleury has been the healthy extra.

"I feel like I've settled in pretty well," Ottavainen said. "I've just tried to play through my strengths: use my skating, be hard to play against, be physical in our own zone, and just play simple. Make plays when I have the chance and jump into the play, but try to be reliable."

Lambert stopped short of handing him the third pair. He pointed to the seventh game of the season and the need for someone to make an impact in whatever way the night called for. He praised Ottavainen's physical size and his aggressiveness, especially in how he defends his gaps. He also said there's plenty of work left, and Ottavainen knows it. Still, this is the kind of progress that turns a rotation spot into a regular job, and my read is that Ottavainen is close to earning one.