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With no Jared McCann, added to the fact there was no Jaden Schwartz, there was no way this was going to be easy, right?
Easy or not, the Seattle Kraken and Boston Bruins forged a battle, memorable on the scale Thursday night.
The evening ended with Jake DeBrusk’s second goal of the game, a near-impossible angle shot beside the left goal line past Philipp Grubauer, for a 3-2 overtime win for the Bruins over the Kraken before a sellout crowd at Climate Pledge Arena.
Despite yielding the overtime winner and with the Kraken forging on without McCann, their leading scorer who was sidelined on injured reserve, Grubauer authored a three-star effort with his fingerprints all over this one from the start.
Principal in helping kill off a two-man advantage for Boston in the first period, making a sprawling, split-legged save in the second period, and consistently maneuvering heavy traffic all night, Grubauer made 36 saves to help the Kraken snap out of a string of five straight losses in regulation.
David Pastrnak also hammered his 28th goal of the season in the second period at 6:47, answered by a Jordan Eberle deke to tie the game with 6:41 remaining.
After the Kraken escaped penalty issues in the first period, they held an early 1-0 lead which morphed from Mark Giordano’s exit from the penalty box and scoring on a snap shot break just 3:29 into the game.
Giordano reached a tie for sixth with Red Kelly for most shorthanded goals (12) by a defenseman in NHL history.
DeBrusk’s first goal of the game, finishing a tap in after an errant puck ricocheted off the glass, tied the game 1-1 with 2:27 left in the period.
Linus Ullmark made 25 saves in net for Boston.
NOTES: Boston won the first meeting Feb. 1 by the same score in regulation ... Yanni Gourde, ruled a "game time decision" Thursday morning, wound up playing 17:12 of ice time with a shot on goal and takeaway ... after the Kraken committed four penalties in the first period, the played the rest of the game at full strength ... Eberle has four points in the last five games.