Kraken can’t make early comeback last vs. Penguins in fourth straight loss

One two-goal deficit is no problem for these Seattle Kraken.

Two two-goal deficits? Pushing it.

Eeli Tolvanen got the Kraken halfway to a second comeback in the third period, but the Pittsburgh Penguins restored the two-goal lead with 3:12 left in Monday’s matinee. Seattle fell 6-3 and dropped its fourth straight game.

As Anthony Mantha parked his 6-foot-5 frame in front of Joey Daccord and took away the Kraken goalie’s vision, Penguins teammate Parker Wotherspoon wound up and scored from just inside the blue line. Pittsburgh took the lead 5:44 into the game.

The Kraken have now allowed a short-handed goal in three straight games. Thirty seconds into their first power play of the night, Kraken center Matty Beniers had the puck taken right off his stick by Connor Dewar as Beniers entered the Pittsburgh zone. Dewar took it back the other way, untouched, and beat Daccord low.

Eight minutes in, the Kraken were down 2-0 — a familiar spot, as they’ve gone down 2-0 in two of their past four games in even less time. They came all the way back with four unanswered goals to beat the New York Rangers a week ago, but allowed Boston to score the all-important third goal on Thursday.

The Kraken had dropped five of six games and coach Lane Lambert shuffled his lineup again, looking for another winning combination.

Seattle’s fourth line was clicking the first week of January with Jacob Melanson next to Ben Meyers and opposite Ryan Winterton. Though he impressed in his first significant NHL action, Melanson was caught in a numbers game as the Kraken got healthier and he was reassigned to the American Hockey League. The latest player settling into Melanson’s old spot was none other than Jaden Schwartz, the Kraken’s goals leader last season.

It weirdly worked. Fourth-line center Meyers launched the first multigoal comeback, scoring with 3:48 left in the first period with the primary assist going to Schwartz.

The fourth line was on the ice for the next Kraken goal as well. Meyers took the first whack at the equalizer, which Winterton picked up and sent over to crashing defenseman Ryan Lindgren. Lindgren scored his second goal since joining the Kraken on a four-year, $18 million contract in July.

Only 50 seconds after the Kraken tied it, Penguins defenseman Brett Kulak scored his first NHL goal in almost two years off another bomb from the point.

On Pittsburgh’s fourth goal, Daccord was screened by his own defenseman, one bigger than Mantha. Jamie Oleksiak was between Daccord and eventual goal-scorer Justin Brazeau.

The Penguins’ fifth-ranked penalty kill allowed their first power-play goal in six games during the third period. Tolvanen put a nearly unstoppable shot into the top corner of the net, and put the Kraken within a goal with a little over 12 minutes left in regulation.

Daccord (26 saves) was on the wrong side of the net and Brandon Montour was too far away to stop Rickard Rakell from making it 4-2 Pittsburgh. Not long after that, Dewar’s second goal of the game was an empty netter.

The Kraken (21-18-9) play their next five games at home, all in the next week and a half.