ST. LOUIS — Morgan Geekie scored twice, and the Seattle Kraken ended a three-game skid with a 5-3 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.
“I think we tried to play below the goal line as much as we could,” Geekie said. “I think we’re a pretty heavy team, we moved the puck well underneath them. I think we stuck to our game plan. It was pretty simple coming in, losing [three] or whatever. So, it was good to get that one for sure and close it out the way we did.”
Jared McCann scored, Eeli Tolvanen had three assists, and Daniel Sprong had two assists for the Kraken (33-21-6), who opened a four-game road trip. Martin Jones made 22 saves for his first win since Jan. 25.
“It’s going to be a grind every single game from now on,” McCann said. ‘We’ve got to go out and play like the underdogs every single game. We’ve got to bring the effort every single night. We’ve got to battle teams and out-compete teams and we should be fine.”
Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich each had a goal and an assist for the Blues (26-29-5), who have been outscored 26-11 during a six-game skid (0-4-2). Jordan Binnington made 21 saves in his 10th start over the past 11 games.
“I thought we were the better team after two periods,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “Third period, we spent a little bit too much time in our end, and they got that fourth goal.”
Geekie gave Seattle a 1-0 lead at 9:30 of the first period when he converted off a 2-on-1, snapping a shot off the bar and in on Binnington’s glove side.
Thomas tied it 1-1 at 5:11 of the second period with a short-handed goal, taking a puck up the left side of the ice and beating Jones from the top of the left face-off circle.
“You try and always finish on the plays short-handed at the net,” Thomas said. “That’s pretty much it. I don’t think it got deflected. I think it was a little fan on my part. Sometimes you get lucky.”
McCann made it 2-1 at 6:57 after a Blues penalty expired on a slap shot from the left circle past Binnington. It was McCann’s 27th goal, tying his NHL career high.
“I really don’t care about that stuff,” McCann said. “I want to make the playoffs. I want to get us a shot at the Stanley Cup, and you know your time in this league flies by. Just ask some of our older guys. I want to compete for a Stanley Cup, that’s the main thing.”
Brandon Saad tied it 2-2 at 9:03 as the teams were playing 4-on-4 when he took a stretch pass from Nick Leddy and beat Jones on the glove side from inside the top of the left circle.
Geekie put the Kraken ahead 3-2 at 13:32 after tapping in a puck in front after Seattle won a face-off.
“Go to the net and good things happen, right,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Simple things off of a face-off win, get a puck to the net and have numbers underneath. So real credit to him. When he plays a simple, straightforward game, has energy on the ice to play at both ends of the rink, he’s very effective.”
Jamie Oleksiak extended it to 4-2 at 9:46 of the third period on a shot from the high slot through traffic.
Buchnevich cut it to 4-3 at 14:29 on a one-timer from the low left circle before Brandon Tanev scored an empty-net goal with seven seconds remaining for the 5-3 final.
St. Louis was 0-for-4 on the power play, extending its streak to 23 straight games without a goal on the man-advantage, an area the Blues feel is costing them points of late.
“Poor execution,” St. Louis defenseman Torey Krug said. “We have a tendency to look for the pretty plays instead of just being direct and putting it towards the net and recovering pucks. That’s usually when the pretty plays open up.
“I’ve got to do a better job of taking control and being a leader of the unit and try to calm things down, put guys in positions to succeed. It starts with one guy and hopefully it bleeds through the rest of the power play. If we’re not scoring, we’ve got to at least get momentum for our team.”
NOTES: Kasperi Kapanen made his Blues debut after being claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday; the forward played 19:17 with four shots on goal and three blocked shots. … Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz, who was drafted by the Blues in 2010, played in St. Louis for the first time since signing with Seattle as a free agent in 2021. Schwartz was injured for both of the Kraken’s visits to St. Louis last season. … McCann has a point in eight of the past nine games (four goals, four assists). … Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn had an assist and played 22:38 in his 400th NHL game. … Buchnevich has nine points (three goals, six assists his past seven games and six points (four goals, two assists) in five games against the Kraken.
