Kraken fall to Rangers 3-1 in front of another sellout crowd at Climate Pledge Arena

SEATTLE – Playing a second debut game against an “Original Six” opponent in less than a week this time carried the added spooky specter of present-day play as strong as the Kraken opponent’s historical legacy.

The New York Rangers, despite just one Stanley Cup victory to show for the past 80 years, nonetheless remain a Broadway spectacle for devoutly loyal fans of a team founded in 1928. And as they demonstrated in a Halloween night showdown Sunday, defeating the Kraken 3-1, the Rangers’ present-day ability far exceeds that of an Original Six counterpart Montreal squad that played Climate Pledge Arena last week.

Another sellout crowd of 17,151 saw the Kraken fall behind early, battle back to tie it on a Jordan Eberle goal in the second, only to yield an Adam Fox go-ahead marker from the high slot at 12:10 of the third. Barclay Goodrow then salted things away with an empty net breakaway goal with Philipp Grubauer pulled for the extra attacker.

The Kraken was awarded four power-play chances – aided by the Rangers suffering the rarity of being called not once, but twice in the same game for having too many men on the ice.

But though they came close and threw the puck around with increasing confidence by the final frame, beating standout young Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin proved a challenge. The Kraken held a 33-18 edge in shots – including 24-10 the final two periods – but too often failed to convert against one of the league’s emerging young squads.

The term Original Six, reserved for some of the league’s oldest, most prestigious franchises in Chicago, Montreal, Boston, Toronto, Detroit and Sunday’s visiting Rangers, is sometimes wrongly referred to as describing the NHL’s founding members. It actually signifies NHL squads that remained following a 1942 contraction of the league that would leave it with the same half-dozen teams the next quarter century until 1967-68 expansion.

For all of their history, the current Rangers entered Sunday’s game 4-0-0 on the road and looking to set a franchise record for most October victories away from home. Given that, it seemed imperative the Kraken start the contest better than it did the opening seven minutes or so of its most recent game against Minnesota.

That didn’t happen, as a giveaway resulted in a 2-on-1 break and a close-range wristshot by Rangers veteran Chris Kreider that beat Grubauer short-side. Kreider is to Halloween games what goalie-masked Jason Voorhees was to Friday the 13th horror flicks, striking fear into opponents with goals in each of his past three contests played Oct. 31.

In an ode to Rangers history, Kreider’s first period marker also tied him for 15th on the franchise’s all-time goal-scoring list with Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, who played his best years in Boston but stuck around long enough to be part of New York’s Cup finalist team in 1979. That year’s squad was one of only a handful of Rangers teams to reach the championship round since their 1942 title, with the 1994 edition the only one since to bring home a Cup.

Kreider, 30, played a key playoff role for New York’s most recent finalist in 2014 and is off to a strong start this season with seven goals already. He nearly had No. 8 later in the period, outracing Vince Dunn for a breakaway chance, only to be stoned by Grubauer.

Odd-man rushes would be a feature throughout the game, befitting two teams that benefit heavily off transition play while tending to likewise get burned by it from time to time.

The Kraken, as it did against the Wild, rebounded from their slow start and came on strong by period’s end. Then, they played arguably their best period all season in the second, outshooting the Rangers 11-2 and earning the tying goal at 13:46 when Eberle spun in the right circle and beat Shesterkin with a backhand he got a surprising amount of lift on.

It was the first goal allowed by Shesterkin in 93 minutes, 51 seconds of playing time after he’d shut out Columbus on Friday. And it enabled the Kraken to go to the intermission with something to show for all of its hard work.

But the night’s effort had produced its final Kraken goal. The loss snapped a brief two-game win streak by the Kraken, which fell to 3-5-1 on the season.