<p><p>SEATTLE – To hear Kraken defenseman Jamie Oleksiak and teammates tell it after this seventh consecutive defeat, an overtime loss was still preferable to how the game started with them getting booed by the home fans after the opening period.</p></p><p><p>After a first-intermission talk session between Kraken players, they went out and erased a two-goal deficit Saturday night and actually managed to take their first lead in more than two weeks by the third period. But they again couldn’t hold on and wound up losing, 4-3 in overtime to spoil a night otherwise highlighted by one of the team’s better pushbacks in quite some time.</p></p><p><p>“I think we just kind of sat down and said ‘Look, that first 20 is not what we wanted, but you know, we have 40 minutes to make up for it,’” said Oleksiak, who’d scored a tying second-period goal on a one-timed slapper off a Jordan Eberle feed. “And I think we did a good job responding. So, I think we’re going to be proud of that.”</p></p><p><p>NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov scored his second goal of the game with 1:48 remaining in overtime off an odd-man rush after the Kraken failed to score on a power-play chance that extended into the first 1:44 of the extra session. Jared McCann gave the Kraken their first lead in eight games and 400 minutes, 14 seconds of action with a slap-shot goal the opening minute of the final frame, but Nicholas Paul wound up tying things off another odd-man rush seven minutes later.</p></p><p><p>Oliver Bjorkstrand, who’d scored the Kraken’s opening goal to key their comeback effort, barely missed converting a net-front chance with seven minutes to go in regulation. But his power-play shot attempt from close range went wide and extended a losing streak threatening to take the season along with it for a Kraken team that fell to 8-13-7 and lost goalie Philipp Grubauer to an undisclosed lower-body injury.</p></p><p><p>Grubauer suffered the injury the final minute of the middle period in trying to thwart a 2-on-1 break. He looked to have tweaked something in his leg moving left to right before skating gingerly off the ice at period’s end.</p></p><p><p>Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said the team will evaluate things the next day or two before commenting further. Grubauer helped keep the Kraken in the game during an opening period in which they were outshot 13-4 and were badly outplayed, surrendering an opening goal by Anthony Cirelli and another by Kucherov in the final minute to head to intermission down 2-0.</p></p><p><p>“I mean, it’s obviously difficult,” Oleksiak said of the losing streak. “It can get kind of frustrating at times. But like I said, it’s kind of a matter of looking at the positives and seeing what you can take away and get better at as a group. There’s a lot of hockey to be played.”</p></p><p><p>Oleksiak said overcoming the deficit showed the “character” within the team and that “the guys aren’t just going to roll over.”</p></p><p><p>The work by Eberle on Oleksiak’s goal, stealing a puck behind the net and feeding it out to an incoming Oleksiak, typified the work effort from the second period on. It was similar to the prior game Thursday night, a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils in which the Kraken held a 38-17 shots margin.</p></p><p><p>“The effort’s there; the battle’s there,” Eberle said. “We have to fix a few things as far as execution maybe that’s caused a couple of their goals and some details. But it comes down to this group, we should believe that we’re good enough to beat some good teams. We have a good roster. Obviously, we have some injuries and some guys playing hurt.</p></p><p><p>“But our depth has been key and we need to bear down. These times are tough. We’ve got to find a way to get out of it and flip the script. … You’ve seen teams come back from five, six games below .500 and we’re still in this thing.”</p></p><p><p>Hakstol agreed things have gotten tough indeed on the mental side for his squad as it tries to grind out a win any way it can.</p></p><p><p>“If you look for a spot where, for the group, competitively digging in and really turning a corner, you look at the New Jersey game and tonight’s game and it’s really as positive,” he said. “One point? It stinks. But if you look at the way this hockey game went, it speaks to a lot of the belief in this dressing room. Which is as it should be.”</p></p>
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