Nikita Kucherov nets hat trick as Seattle Kraken lose 6-2 to Lightning

SEATTLE – The Seattle Kraken saw nearly every mistake they made on Tuesday night end up in the back of their net in a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Nikita Kucherov had a hat trick and two assists for a five-point night to lead the Lightning as the league’s second-leading scorer capitalized on multiple Seattle miscues.

Three goals came directly off Kraken turnovers, and the fourth came on a bad line change, and the fifth on a power play as Philipp Grubauer was repeatedly hung out to dry in goal. Grubauer allowed five goals on 24 shots, but had practically no chance on all of them.

“Our mistakes were really catastrophic,” head coach Lane Lambert said. “Obviously, some really, really poor decisions. … We’re making some mistakes here that you can’t make. I’m not even going to say they’re uncharacteristic, because apparently they are at the moment.”

Bobby McMann scored his fourth goal in three games since being cleared to join the Kraken lineup, and Jared McCann also scored for Seattle. However, they were unable to completely erase a 3-0 Tampa lead as they were unable to extend their winning streak to three games.

The Lightning looked like a well-oiled machine for the first 21 minutes of action in building their three-goal advantage.

McCann got trapped on the wall at the Seattle blue line as Gage Goncalves checked McCann off the puck and beat Grubauer off passes from Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point for a 1-0 lead.

Late in the first period, Kucherov picked the puck off the stick of Ben Meyers in the Kraken zone and buried a tap-in goal off a give-and-go with Brandon Hagel for a 2-0 lead.

Kucherov got his second less than a minute into the second period as Seattle got caught in a bad change. A stretch pass from Darren Raddysh caught the Kraken out-numbered with Kucherov serving as the beneficiary of another tap-in goal off passes from Hagel and Anthony Cirelli for a 3-0 advantage.

“They do a good job in the neutral zone,” said McMann, who played the Lightning in the Atlantic Division with the Toronto Maple Leafs. “They make it hard to enter the zone and get possession or establish a forecheck. I think that’s probably the biggest strength of the game. And then if you’re not diligent with the puck and you turn it over, I think, they go the other way pretty good and they have the skill to make it count.”

However, it took just 10 seconds for the Kraken to answer to get back into the contest on McMann’s fourth goal in three games with Seattle. Matty Beniers made a leaping stop to keep the puck in the offensive zone and set up McMann while falling to the ice. McMann sniped a shot over Andrei Vasilevskiy’s right shoulder from the left dot to cut the lead to 3-1.

McCann added a goal just as a power play expired midway through the period to trim the Lightning lead to 3-2 at the break. After generating almost nothing on the power play, McCann led one last rush into Tampa’s zone and found his way in front of goal with the puck, lifting a shot by Vasilevskiy to make it a one-goal game.

A hooking penalty on Charle-Edouard D’Astous gave the Kraken a power play chance to tie the game shortly afterward that Seattle was unable to convert. After Grubauer made a stellar save on Brandon Hagel to keep in a one-goal game, Vasilevskiy made a big stop on a Freddy Gaudreau chance to preserve Tampa’s advantage.

A missed slashing call from Hagel on Beniers allowed Tampa to turn another ‘turnover’ into a goal as Cirelli cleaned up a loose puck in front of Grubauer for a 4-2 lead.

Vasilevskiy delivered two more big saves on Adam Larsson and Jordan Eberle to prevent the Kraken from cutting into the lead before the Lightning put the game firmly away.

Hagel added a power play goal with McMann in the box for a boarding penalty against D’Astous. Kucherov, Goncalves and Hagel combined for a great passing sequence that again left Grubauer defenseless.

“These mistakes are really costing us and Grubi had no chance on all the goals,” Lambert said.

“The penalty kill goal that they scored off the rush at the end is inexcusable. You know, we can’t give that goal up. we made a mistake, and these mistakes have to stop.”

Kucherov polished off the hat trick with an empty net goal for his 37th goal of the season as he moved in front of Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for second in the league in points at 111, trailing only Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (115). 

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