Vince Dunn and his Kraken teammates had gone a long way toward making this feel like a new era for the franchise well before the defenseman opened Tuesday’s scoring by banging home his own rebound.

Bolstered by a new head coach in Dan Bylsma, captain in Jordan Eberle and second period goals by Dunn and Eeli Tolvanen, the more-aggressive-looking Kraken swarmed the visiting St. Louis Blues at will and appeared well on their way to an opening day victory. But then, out of nowhere, three St. Louis goals in a span of 1:55 in the latter part of that middle frame sent the Kraken reeling to an eventual 3-2 loss in front of a Climate Pledge Arena crowd likely anticipating a far different outcome, much of this afternoon affair.

Jordan Kyrou had two of the St. Louis goals against goalie Philipp Grubauer that second period while Philip Broberg had the other.

For the Kraken, playing in front of a national ESPN television audience and a pumped-up crowd of 17,151 left roaring by the pregame introduction of Eberle as captain, the defeat was their fourth straight in both a season and home opener.

For Dunn, his first goal since last Feb. 26 following a prolonged injury absence that caused him to miss most of last season’s final quarter appeared destined to help the Kraken shed their opening day streak. His initial shot was stopped by Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, but Dunn kept going to the net and slammed the rebound home just 27 seconds into the second period.

Going to the net had been preached often by Bylsma throughout the preseason, and the Kraken took it to heart from the opening whistle. Tolvanen would deflect a Ryker Evans point shot for a 2-0 lead just two minutes after Dunn’s goal, and the Kraken would soon hold a 21-8 shots advantage with Binnington the only thing keeping the Blues in it.

The Kraken were also standing up for one another, going after the Blues aggressively in scrums and not allowing them to assert themselves back into the contest physically.

In fact, the Kraken were a hair away from making it a 3-0 lead when a blue line blast eluded Binnington, but the play was whistled down on what had clearly been a delayed offside.

Not long after that, the Kraken were penalized, and Kyrou finally got St. Louis on the board, taking a Robert Thomas pass and tucked the puck between goalie Philipp Grubauer’s legs from in close. Not long after, Philip Broberg took the puck in the left faceoff circle and fired a shot past Grubauer to his far glove side.

Just 20 seconds after that, the Kraken now reeling, Alexandre Texier sprung Kyrou with a breakaway pass and he beat Grubauer short side to put the Blues ahead for the first time.

The Kraken did what they could from there, but both teams tightened up in the final frame when chances were few and far between. Grubauer was pulled in the final minute, but the Blues held on to drop the Kraken to 0-3-1 in season openers and 0-4-0 in home openers.