Nightmare Bounce Dooms Kraken In Pre-Halloween Loss to Panthers, 3-2

On "Trick or Treat" night at Amerant Bank Arena, the Seattle Kraken suffered eerie and disturbing flashbacks to earlier games in their road trip.

Against the Florida Panthers, like games in Detroit and Carolina, Seattle raced to a two-goal lead but couldn't keep it, eventually losing 3-2.

Kraken scoring once again dried up in the second half of the game, made worse by a nightmare bounce on Florida's game-winning goal.

This game could turn on who breaks out of the "Snipers Having Trouble Scoring" club. Through eight games, Seattle's Matty Beniers and Eeli Tolvanen have zero goals. Through six, Florida's Matthew Tkachuk also hasn't scored, and Aleksander Barkov has one.

One Kraken who hasn't had trouble scoring is Jared McCann, who pots his fourth at 7:57 for a 1-0 Seattle lead. Last year's 40-goal forward gets behind the Panthers D, stickhandling until Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had to be dizzy.

None of it would have been possible without Yanni Gourde's high-skill chip - in one motion, taking Will Borgen's clearing pass, and sending the puck on to McCann.

McCann played parts of three seasons for the Panthers between 2016-19. Despite their early season goal-scoring issues, the Kraken have scored first in six of their last seven games.

Florida has the league's worst penalty kill, 65.4%. Seattle is unable to take advantage when Dmitry Kulikov is called for tripping at 12:30. In fact, each team gets one SOG on the PP; the Kraken's was a harmless 50-footer from Justin Schultz.

Kraken goalie Joey Daccord, making a somewhat surprising third consecutive start, stones Tkachuk. Daccord takes a rising snapper from the right circle off his chest.

In the definition of a quality road period, Seattle doesn't allow a goal, doesn't take a penalty, wins 61% of faceoffs, and takes a 1-0 lead to the dressing room. Shots were 15-14 Florida.

"We kept it simple," Jared McCann said about Seattle's 1st period in a ROOT Sports interview. "Put pucks in deep, made them make plays. We're a hard team to beat when we're skating"

Potential disaster averted, Seattle: Gourde appears to hit Uvis Balinskis with a high stick, which initially drew a double-minor for high sticking. Replays nullified the penalty; contact with his own stick caused Balinskis' head to snap back.

Potential disaster averted, Florida: Seattle's Justin Schultz rings the post.

Potential disaster averted, Seattle: Daccord bails out defenseman Vince Dunn by doing a Gumby. Dunn's blind centering pass in his own zone leads to Anton Lundell's shot from outside the right post. Daccord, prone on his belly, stretches out a pad to maintain the Kraken lead.

Eeli Tolvanen records his first goal for Seattle, not with his patented bomb of a shot, but with soft hands. 

Tolvanen, standing near the paint, deflects Jaden Schwartz's long wrister at 7:38 for a 2-0 lead.

Just like Tuesday in Detroit and Thursday in Carolina, the Kraken can't maintain a two goal lead. Just 35 seconds after Jamie Oleksiak goes off for interference, Florida's Gustav Forsling scores on the PP at 8:53.

In the blink of an eye, Seattle's lead is all gone. Florida's Matthew Tkachuk ties the game 2-2 at 9:04 with his first of the season, 11 seconds after Forsling's goal.

Daccord and the iron keep the game tied. The goalie kicks out a pad on Ryan Lomberg's high-danger chance. The rebound comes right back to Lomberg, whose second shot dents the far post. Still, the ice has clearly tilted in Florida's direction.

The blue line did its part for the Kraken, too. An apparent lead goal by Florida's Sam Reinhart with 12 seconds left, which would have been his 8th, was nullified because a Seattle coaching challenge confirmed Reinhart was offside when he initially touched the puck.

Shots favored the Panthers, 13-3 in the second period, 28-17 for the game. Are the Kraken trying to help Daccord break his team-record 42 saves he set Thursday in Raleigh?

"We  kind of got sloppy with the puck, had a lot of turnovers," Tolvanen said in an intermission interview. "We have to be harder there."

Tolvanen bids to give Seattle back the lead, breaking in alone with 11 minutes left, but Bobrovsky has the answer. Tolvanen wasn't helped by a puck bouncing off the chippy ice - pucks have repeadedly rolled off sticks - possibly a result of gametime temperatures in the 80s.

Disaster NOT averted, Seattle. Daccord goes behind the net to play a dump-in winding around the boards. The puck unexpectedly hits a seam and instead deflects into the slot - where there's no goalie. Nick Cousins backhands the puck into the yawning cage for a 3-2 Panthers lead with 5:52 left.

The Kraken pull Daccord with 1:38 remaining. They apply 6-on-5 pressure, but can't get the equalizer in a 3-2 loss.

Seattle played a better period, reflected in a 14-10 shot advantage. For the game, shots were 38-31 Florida, with the home team scoring the final three goals. A bad late bounce and continued lack of scoring finish again doom the team.

The Kraken will no doubt feel they left points on the table against a rusty Panthers team, which hadn't played since Tuesday. Instead, Seattle must regroup in the conclusion of their road trip Monday against the Lightning in Tampa.