3/17/2026
SEATTLE, WASH
Nikita Kucherov registered a hat trick to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning past the Seattle Kraken 6-2. Gage Goncalves, Anthony Cirelli, and Brandon Hagel also scored for Tampa while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves in the win. Bobby McMann and Jared McCann scored second period goals for Seattle while Philipp Grubauer made 19 saves on 24 Tampa shots in the loss.
With the loss, the Kraken remain in the final wild card playoff spot in a tie with the Los Angeles Kings and one point ahead of the San Jose Sharks.
Gage Goncalves at 5:45, opened the scoring for Tampa by generating a turnover with a check to the wall on Jared McCann outside of the Seattle blueline. Goncalves later buried a return feed from Brayden Point to draw first blood for the Lightning. Nikita Kucherov scored late in the opening 20 on a turnover inside Seattle’s defensive zone. Brandon Hagel earned credit for the assist on the goal at 18:49. Tampa held the lead 2-0, and the edge in shots, 9-4 after one.
Nikita Kucherov began the second period where he left off. At 1:07, Kucherov scored his second goal of the night on a stretch pass from Taylor Raddysh setting up Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli to connect with the Hart Trophy candidate. 10 seconds later, Bobby McMann scored his fourth goal in his third game in a Seattle uniform to put the Kraken on the board. The Kraken proved again to be opportunistic in the middle period. Jared McCann brought the Kraken within one on a power play tally at 9:46. Jordan Eberle and Philipp Grubauer earned credit for the assists. Seattle outshot Tampa 9-6 in the second period.
It only took 41 seconds into the third period for some fireworks. Seattle’s Ben Myers and former Kraken Yanni Gourde exchanged haymakers in a spirited fight. However, the momentum quickly shifted towards Tampa when Anthony Cirelli gave the Lightning a 4-2 lead at 4:35. Brandon Hagel salted the game for Tampa with a power play goal at 16:54. Nikita Kucherov added a hat trick goal into an empty net at 17:16.
Kraken Head Coach Lane Lambert postgame about the loss said, “it was a fairly even game, our mistakes were really catastrophic, really poor decisions.” Lambert about the second period response from Seattle said, “I’m unhappy with the result, I’m not necessarily happy with the effort we had. It’s just we have to move pucks quicker, it’s that simple.”
The Kraken embark on a six game road trip beginning Thursday against the Nashville Predators. Seattle’s home game is on April the 2nd against the Utah Mammoth.
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