Seattle Survives Utah's Third-Period Comeback, Wins 5-3

Logan Cooley scored twice in the first seven minutes of the third period to knot the game at three, but Seattle answered with two unanswered goals to close out a 5-3 win over Utah on October 23. Philipp Grubauer made 33 saves to backstop the victory, while Karel Vejmelka allowed four goals on 22 shots in a losing effort.

Seattle set the tone early. Jordan Eberle's slap shot at 3:38 of the first — assisted by Ryker Evans — put the Kraken up 1-0, and that opening goal looks like the turning point that defined the game's trajectory, shifting the score margin from even to Seattle's favor before Utah had found its footing. Utah answered late in the first: Vincent Trocheck's snap shot at 17:57 tied it, but just 26 seconds later, Matty Beniers deflected one past Karel Vejmelka to put Seattle back in front 2-1. That 26-second window was a gut punch Utah spent the rest of the night trying to recover from.

Seattle pushed the lead to 3-1 just 2:23 into the second when Brandon Montour ripped a slap shot home, assisted by Eberle and Vince Dunn. At that point, Utah appeared to be in serious trouble — Vejmelka had allowed three goals on a modest shot volume, and the Kraken looked comfortable. Then came the third period, and Logan Cooley. He tipped one in at 0:27 — barely 27 seconds into the frame — off feeds from Mikhail Sergachev and Clayton Keller to make it 3-2. Then at 7:42, Cooley ripped a slap shot past Grubauer, with Sergachev and MacKenzie Weegar assisting, to tie the game at three. Cooley's two-goal, two-point night and Sergachev's two-assist performance gave Utah every reason to believe a road win was possible.

It wasn't. Seattle responded with the two goals that mattered most. Mackie Samoskevich wired a wrist shot past Vejmelka at 14:35 — Brandon Montour picking up the secondary assist for his second point of the night — to put the Kraken back in front 4-3. Then, with one minute left on the clock, Freddy Gaudreau buried an unassisted wrist shot to seal it at 5-3. The story of the night was Seattle's resilience: every time Utah clawed back, the Kraken had an answer. Grubauer's 33-save performance was steady if not spectacular, but on a night when Utah outshot Seattle 36-22, steady was enough. Utah's inability to generate more offense despite that shot advantage — and Vejmelka's rough night allowing four goals on just 22 shots — ultimately tells you everything about why this one ended the way it did.