Seattle Kraken fall to Minnesota Wild for 5th straight regulation defeat

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Dec 9, 2025

Published in Hockey

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Notable: Leave it to a former Kraken player to ruin what was mostly a solid performance by the home team.

Marcus Johansson scored just over eight minutes into the third period and Minnesota scored a pair of empty-net goals later for a 4-1 victory and the fifth straight loss in regulation for the Kraken. Seattle is 0-5-1 in the last six and dropped to 11-10-6 for the season.

“For me, we need to find a little bit better from everybody,” Kraken captain Jordan Eberle said. “You can say we’re working hard, competing, but I just think that we need to find a little more from every single guy.”

The five-game streak without points for the Kraken is the longest slump since almost exactly a year ago when Seattle dropped five straight games between Dec. 14-22 and fell to 15-19-2 at the end of that skid.

Johansson, who was one of the original Kraken in 2021 before getting traded to the Wild, made a deft redirection of a floating pass from Joel Erickson Ek off the wall and past Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer. It was Johansson’s ninth goal of the season.

The Kraken appeared to tie the game at 2-2 immediately after Johansson’s goal when Tye Kartye batted a rebound out of the air and past Filip Gustavsson. But the goal was disallowed on the ice for being played with a high stick and was confirmed on video review.

Kirill Kaprizov and Vladimir Tarasenko added empty-net goals in the final 75 seconds for the Wild.

Johansson’s goal ruined what was otherwise a stellar night from Grubauer, who has been the better goalie for the Kraken lately. Grubauer made 25 saves and turned away several high-danger chances for the Wild.

“He played great, especially early on. Kind of stood on his head there,” Eberle said.

Minnesota went up 1-0 moments into the second period when Joel Erickson Ek was able to get his stick around Chandler Stephenson and tap Matt Boldy’s pass from behind the goal past Grubauer.

Minnesota got a power play just 21 second later after Kaapo Kakko was called for high-sticking, but the Kraken were able to kill the penalty and then capitalized on their own man-advantage a few minutes later. Seattle’s maligned penalty kill was 3 for 3 in killing off penalties, just the third time in 15 games the Kraken didn’t surrender a power-play goal.

Jordan Eberle scored his ninth of the season later in the second period slipping to the back post and redirected Stephenson’s pass for only the second power-play goal for Seattle in the past seven games.

A spirited first period became downright nasty late in the opening frame after Vince Dunn laid out Mats Zuccarello with a massive hit in open ice at the blue line that sent the Minnesota forward tumbling to the ice and eventually back to the locker room. Zuccarello’s teammates didn’t appreciate the hit, which was deemed legal by officials after a video review, as a massive scrum with lots of pushing and shoving, and gloves in faces, ensued.

The discontent continued after the first period ended with Mason Marchment and Ryan Hartman being separated by officials on the ice while Dunn and Kaprizov barked back and forth on the benches.

Most of the displeasure between the teams seemed to settle down as the game progressed, although Minnesota was left short-handed as Zuccarello didn’t return.

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Quotable:“It’s tough. Rock bottom is a tough spot to be in. And you can say all you want and whatever, but I mean, you just got to do it. I think that’s kind of the biggest thing right now, is that we just have to do it,” Stephenson said.

Player of the game: Grubauer deserved a better outcome than the final score. It was his first regulation loss in a start this season.

Goal of the game: Johansson’s goal gets the nod for the degree of difficulty in managing to redirect a puck that was into his body toward the net and past Grubauer.

On tap: The Kraken close out their three-game homestand on Wednesday with a Pacific Division matchup with the Los Angeles Kings. It’s the first of four matchups with the Kings this season, but the next one in Seattle doesn’t come until April 13 in the regular season home finale.

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