Youngster Shane Wright scored his first NHL point, but the Seattle Kraken suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Wright, whose playing time has been very limited since his debut on the Bettman circuit, was only used for 6 minutes and 36 seconds, but he found a way to stand out with an assist.
Wright’s game started off on the wrong foot at first, as in the opening minutes of the game the young striker was hit hard by Ivan Barbashev. He got away with it, however.
The Blues then opened the scoring midway through when Jordan Kyrou found the back of the net for the first time this season.
The Kraken provided the answer a few minutes later, when Will Borgen deceived the vigilance of Jordan Binnington to bring back the equality.
St. Louis returned to the charge just 65 seconds later. Brayden Schenn restored the lead to the Blues, before seeing Justin Faulk make it 3-1 in favor of the Blues after the first 20 minutes of play.
Then midway through the middle period, Wright deflected a puck down the ramp. Brandon Tanev picked it up, before handing it to Ryan Donato who hit the target. Wright picked up his first NHL point on the streak. Also in the second period, Adam Larsson hit the target to eventually force overtime.
Midway through extra time, Faulk scored his second goal of the game to give the Blues the win.
In the win, Binnington made 32 saves, while opposite number Martin Jones blocked 25 pucks.
Verhaeghe unblocks; 1st setback for the Flyers
After being shut out in the first three games of the season, Carter Verhaeghe found the net twice to help the Florida Panthers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 on Wednesday in their home opening.
Author of 24 goals last year, it was he who opened the scoring tonight with a one-timer in addition to adding more by escaping 2 minutes 30 later.
Nick Seeler and James van Riemsdyk, however, tied the two teams in the second period.
Rudolfs Balcers put the Panthers back in front with a backhand after being left alone in front of the net, good for his first goal in a Florida uniform, then Josh Mahura put the finishing touches.
Alexander Barkov, Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk all contributed two assists. Tkachuk has had at least one point in each of the Panthers’ four games this season.
Travis Konecny scored the Flyers’ other goal in a desperate cause with 2 seconds left in the game.
In his sixth career start, 25-year-old goaltender Felix Sandstrom is still chasing his first NHL win. However, he will still have to wait, he who finished the match with 31 saves. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 of 34 shots aimed at him.
The Panthers were without No. 1 defenseman Aaron Ekblad. He’ll be out until at least mid-November and possibly longer after he’s been on the long-term injured list with a groin injury.
Ekblad was injured in Monday’s loss to the Boston Bruins. He missed the last 21 games of last season due to a knee injury. He had also missed 21 games of the shortened season in 2021, when he suffered a broken leg.
They were also without defenseman Brandon Montour for the second straight game due to an upper body injury.
