Brandon Montour’s OT goal lifts Seattle Kraken to crucial win in Tampa

The Kraken have still never beaten the Tampa Bay Lightning in regulation, but that was the last thing on anyone’s minds Thursday.

With the Nashville Predators strengthening their hold on the last playoff spot in the Western Conference and time running out for Seattle to do anything about it, this was essentially a must-win game. Shane Wright’s desperate chop kept the puck in the Lightning zone, and since it was 3-on-3 overtime, Brandon Montour had time and space to juggle the puck and study the Tampa Bay net.

Montour beat goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy five-hole for his second goal of the game and a 4-3 Kraken victory in Tampa, Fla. Philipp Grubauer turned in a steady, 30-save performance for Seattle.

“We’re a desperate team right now,” Montour said. “We need to be engaged every shift.”

Montour opened and closed the scoring. The defenseman did his best impression of a forward while cutting to the net early in the first period. He backhanded a Freddy Gaudreau feed past Vasilevskiy.

Vasilevskiy was 7-0 against the Kraken all-time heading into the game. He wasn’t in net the only other time the Lightning lost to the Kraken, which was Oct. 30, 2023, in overtime.

The Kraken swapped replacement forwards before the game. Oskar Fisker Molgaard was recalled from the American Hockey League and Jani Nyman returned to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Molgaard, the 21-year-old Danish Olympian, picked up an assist on Montour’s goal for his second point in four NHL games.

“He’s having a great year in Coachella Valley and well deserving of the call-up,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “We’ll continue to use him, and I expect his ice time to grow.”

Anthony Cirelli tied the game for the Lightning less than two minutes after Montour’s first goal, but Kaapo Kakko gave the Kraken a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.

Bobby McMann stretched the lead — and the torrid start to his Kraken tenure — 3:35 into the second period. McMann made quick work of a rebound for his sixth goal in seven games since joining the Kraken at the trade deadline. He also picked up an assist on Kakko’s earlier goal, giving him nine points since Seattle acquired him from Toronto.

After a high hit left Kraken captain Jordan Eberle dazed, 20-year-old rookie Berkly Catton was looking to fight anyone who would have him. J.J. Moser was not the one who threw the hit, but he took Catton up on his offer anyway. Lambert called the fight “a real spark for our hockey team.”

Catton said his eye was swollen after his first NHL bout.

“Had to do it,” he added.

“It was old-school game. If there was a dirty hit or something a guy didn’t like, usually there was either fighting or a big hit or something like that. Tough one.”

Catton and Moser picked up the only two fighting majors of the second period, though there were plenty of words exchanged. Montour and Vince Dunn earned roughing penalties.

For the second straight game, the Kraken rolled with seven defensemen and an incomplete fourth line. So without Eberle, who turned his back to the action and received medical attention on the bench for a bit, and Catton, who served five minutes for fighting, the Kraken had only three forward lines for a good chunk of the second period. Wright’s availability was also iffy at one point.

“Our bench was real short at times, without players, so guys did a really good job of adapting and adjusting,” Lambert said.

Corey Perry’s power-play goal tied the game 3-all, 18 seconds past the game’s halfway mark. Tampa Bay outshot Seattle 11-4 in the third period, but the Kraken gratefully escaped to overtime.

“They always had a guy hanging out behind me, so it was extremely difficult to see both things and maybe make the correct read,” Grubauer said. “But we got in front. We pushed them out. That was great.

Montour handed them a second standings point and their first win of a six-game road trip (1-2-1).

The Kraken got more good news after the game. The New Jersey Devils pulled ahead in the third period to beat the Predators 4-2, which ended Nashville’s five-game win streak. Seattle closed the gap to three points, but the L.A. Kings are right there in the mix as well. The Kings played the league’s worst team, the Vancouver Canucks, later Thursday.

L.A. and Nashville have 10 games remaining in the regular season. Seattle has 11.