The Toronto Maple Leafs lost 5-4 to the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday, their second straight defeat after a four-game winning streak. Toronto dropped to 7-6-2; Seattle improved to 8-4-1.
Berkly Catton opened the scoring 1:59 in, cutting into the slot and beating Sergei Bobrovsky with a backhand off Mackie Samoskevich’s feed. Gavin McKenna answered on Toronto’s first power play, going post and in with 22 seconds left on the man advantage, from Auston Matthews and Darren Raddysh.
Seattle needed 16 seconds of the second period to go back ahead, Josh Mahura finishing a 2-on-1 down the left side off Ben Meyers’ pass. McKenna tied it at 1:46 with a slap shot on another power play, then Chandler Stephenson restored the Seattle Kraken lead at 3:33 on a man advantage, and Ryker Evans beat Bobrovsky over the glove from the left faceoff circle at 10:58.
Toronto climbed out of that hole with two third-period goals to make it 4-4, only for Brandon Montour to beat Bobrovsky at 19:27 off Jordan Eberle and Bobby McMann feeds, settling it with 33 seconds left.
The middle period is where this one got away. Toronto was outshot 8-2 in the frame and held to a single five-on-five shot, and a 2-2 tie had become a 4-2 deficit by the intermission.
The power play finished 2-for-2 and scored both of the Maple Leafs’ first two goals. The penalty kill, the NHL’s best at 93.6% before puck drop, killed four of five.
3 most disappointing Maple Leafs players from 5-4 loss to Kraken
#3. Zack MacEwen
The fourth-line winger put his team shorthanded with the Maple Leafs already down 4-2 at 15:45 of the second, called for delaying the game after putting the puck over the glass. It was Seattle’s fourth power play of the night, and only a strong kill kept it from mattering.
MacEwen finished minus-1 with one shot on goal in sparing minutes. From a player whose job is energy and straight lines, that is a bad trade.
#2. Vinni Lettieri
The trip on Vince Dunn at 2:18 of the second came with the score tied 2-2 and the Maple Leafs finally level after chasing from the first minute. Stephenson scored 1:15 into that minor, and Toronto never led again.
Lettieri added a five-minute fighting major with Cale Fleury at 12:37, so 7 of the Maple Leafs’ 15 penalty minutes were his. The scrap was mutual and cost nothing on the scoreboard. A depth forward taking a careless minor in a tied game does.
#1. Sergei Bobrovsky
Sergei Bobrovsky allowed five goals, and the timing of them was worse than the count.
Catton beat him 1:59 in. Mahura beat him 16 seconds into the second. Evans beat him over the glove from the left dot at 10:58, a look a No. 1 goalie is paid to stop. The fifth is the one that decided the game: Montour’s shot at 19:27 with the score tied 4-4 and 33 seconds on the clock.
He signed a three-year, $21 million deal ($7 million AAV) on July 1 to end the Maple Leafs’ goalie carousel, and this is the risk in that bet. The skaters in front of him were loose in the middle frame, and the defence offered little help on Mahura’s 2-on-1. Five goals against is still five goals against on a night his team scored four and tied it in the third.
Bobrovsky’s record falls to 3-5-2. Tavares and Tanev are out, Marchenko is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, and Toronto’s margin for a soft goal or a careless penalty stays thin until they return.
Edited by Srihari Anand
