SEATTLE, WA - OCTOBER 22: Mackie Samoskevich #11 of the Seattle Kraken reacts after scoring a goal during a game between the Utah Mammoth and Seattle Kraken on October 22, 2026 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. (Henry Rodenburg / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
SEATTLE - Mackie Samoskevich scored the game-winning goal with 5:25 left to play, and Freddy Gaudreau scored on an empty-net to give the Seattle Kraken a 5-3 win over the Utah Mammoth on Thursday night.
Brandon Montour and Jordan Eberle each had a goal and an assist, and Matty Beniers also scored for the Kraken in the victory.
Philipp Grubauer made 33 saves on 36 shots in goal as Seattle earned their seventh win in 11 games so far this season. The 15 points through 11 games is the best start in team history, surpassing the 14 points at the same point last year.
The backstory:
The Kraken held a 3-1 lead after two periods, but Logan Cooley scored a pair of goals – including one on the power play – to tie the game up with 12:18 remaining. Both teams had a goal disallowed in the third for missed offsides calls, but both would end up scoring the next goal anyway.
Bobby McMann had his goal disallowed, but would get the assist on Samoskevich's game-winner instead.
While the Kraken have had a strong start to the season with six wins in their first 10 games entering Thursday night, all six wins came against teams in the bottom third of the league standings early in the season. The matchup against the Mammoth, who entered Thursday night atop the Central Division, provided a better test of the type of team the Kraken might be this year.
Dig deeper:
A fortunate early bounce gave Seattle the lead. Jordan Eberle's slap shot was deflected aside by Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka, but rebounded off the end glass and back off Vejmelka and into the net for a 1-0 lead less than four minutes in.
But Utah has the best power play unit in the league and took advantage of the extra skater to tie the game with just over two minutes remaining in the opening period. Josh Mahura took a bad interference penalty against Kevin Stenlund to give the Mammoth their first power play, and former Kraken and Spokane native Kailer Yamamoto set up Vincent Trocheck for a goal to tie the game at 1-1.
Stenlund would take an interference call of his own shortly thereafter to give Seattle a power play chance, and the Kraken capitalized to take a lead into the first intermission.
Off a face-off win, Berkly Catton juked out Lawson Crouse and attacked the net. A quick pass to Kaapo Kakko and pass to Matty Beniers beat Vejmelka for a power play goal and 2-1 lead.
Yamamoto was called for interference early in the second, and Jack McBain tripped Catton to give Seattle a 5-on-3 power play chance. Montour ripped a shot by Vejmelka on the two-man advantage to give the Kraken a 3-1 edge that held through the rest of the period.
However, the Mammoth would mount a comeback in the third. Utah out-shot the Kraken by a 14-4 margin in the period as Cooley scored twice to bring the game back level. Cooley scored on the power play 27 seconds into the third, tipping a Mikhail Sergechev shot past Grubauer to trim the lead to one. A slap shot from distance seven minutes later also found its way by Grubauer to tie the game at 3-3.
Yamamoto deflected a Dmitry Simashev shot by Grubauer before Cooley's second goal, only to have it wiped away to a very missed offsides call. After Utah tied the game, McMann ripped a shot off a Chandler Stephenson pass by Vejmelka only to have it called off for offsides as well.
McMann and Montour got a 2-on-1 chance on Vejmelka with 5:30 remaining. Vejmelka made a save on McMann, but Montour retrieved the puck and passed it back into the mess in front of the Utah net. It landed again on McMann's stick, and he dished to Samoskevich for a finish on the wide open net.
An awful giveaway by Sergechev landed directly on Gaudreau's stick as he scored on the empty net with a minute left to play to seal the victory.
While Seattle is just one point better in the standings than they were at this point last year, the 2025-26 team had a -2 goal differential with 30 goals for and 32 against through 11 games. This year's team has scored 44 goals and allowed 37 for a +7 differential through the first 11 games of the season.
The Kraken are averaging 4.00 goals per game, which ranks third in the NHL behind Edmonton (4.70/game) and Colorado (4.10/game).
What's next:
Another good Western Conference test for the Kraken is coming on Saturday as Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Quinn Hughes lead the Minnesota Wild into town. The Wild are tied with the Mammoth atop the Central Division standings (14 points) on a 6-3-2 start to the year. Minnesota is coming off a loss, 2-1, to the Calgary Flames.
The Source: Information in this story comes from FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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Gaudreau scores twice as Seattle Kraken beat Red Wings 6-3
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