ST. PAUL, Minn. – In a game that included a Minnesota disallowed goal because time had expired in the first period and a second period Kraken goal that stood after review and despite home-crowd sentiment, the final score here was decided by a shootout that didn’t need any further review. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jordan Eberle scored in the shootout, and Joey Daccord stopped two of three attempts for coach Dan Bylsma’s first win.

There was lots more to this game. Seattle staged not one, not two, but three comebacks in this Saturday sendup of a game. The third rally came just seconds after Kraken coach Dan Bylsma pulled Joey Daccord for an extra attacker on a delayed penalty. D-man Ryker Evans got the puck to shoot-first Jared McCann, and that he did from quite a bit atop the right faceoff circle, sending a laser past Minnesota’s Marc-Andre Fleury. The goal was scored with three-and-a-half minutes left in regulation.

Captain Eberle Leading By Scoring

When an early second-period shot from Minnesota’s Matt Boldy slithered through Joey Daccord’s attempted glove jab-save on the Wild powerplay, the 2-0 no doubt raised some dread among fans watching the Kraken Hockey Network back in the PNW. Boldy notched his second goal of the season with another assist racked up the Kirill Kaprizov.

But newly appointed captain Jordan Eberle and crew responded with a goal just 40 seconds after the two-goal margin was established. Brandon Montour showed one of the many reasons why Seattle signed the summer free agent by rapidly transitioning the puck from defense to offense, sending the puck to Jared McCann in the neutral zone. McCann carried it to the right side into the Wild zone, then maneuvered toward the top left faceoff circle to fling a shot that Minnesota’s Marc-Andre Fleury stopped with his leg pads but couldn’t control. Both Eberle and new linemate Shane Wright had crashed the net with four Wild defenders doing their best to knock them down or out of the crease or both.

Montour and McCann earned assists (first of the year for both) on the score, which effectively was a scrum of players positioning crease-front in what looked a lot like wall or corner puck but inches from the goal line instead with Wild goalie and future Hall of Fame Marc-Andre Fleury prone on the ice. Eberle, truly a lead-by-example veteran and more vocal in the locker room than many fans might assume, held his upright posture and hacked and whacked enough—three times by this count – to get stick on puck past the goal line. Wright occupied a couple of foes to allow Eberle’s heroics.

Minnesota fans didn’t like the crease invasion, of course, but they were even more enraged by the Kraken’s second goal to tie the game eight-plus minutes into the middle period when Eberle was at the far goal post and Andre Burakovsky’s shot-pass found the captain’s skate and deflected into a gaping net with Fleury otherwise occupied. The Toronto situation room reviewed the play but quickly confirmed Eberle did not intentionally redirect the puck with his feet.

Third-Period Valley, Peak, Valley

When Wild star forward Kirill Kaprizov scored his first goal of the new season less than two minutes into the third period, a sense of uh-oh likely replayed among the Kraken faithful. The Russian-born winger was sort of a one-man wrecking ball Saturday, assisting on the first two Minnesota goals.

But a minute later, Brandon Tanev won a puck battle in the corner and sent the puck to linemate Tye Kartye. The young undrafted forward launched a snapshot from the left faceoff circle to beat the Wild’s Fleury clean. Yanni Gourde notched the secondary on the line that started the game for Seattle. Another Kraken comeback completed. But it didn’t hold, and Kraken are headed to Dallas in search of a first win.

Keeping It Close in the First Period

The Kraken were saved by the bell, well, buzzer at the end of the first period to keep the score 1-0 after a first period that tilted heavily to Minnesota. The raucous Saturday crowd in this self-proclaimed “State of Hockey” went high-decibel when it appeared Kirill Kaprizov had scored from a bad angle on the Wild’s second power play. But replay doused the noise because time had expired.

The shot total was 14-10 in favor of the home squad, but Grade-A scoring chances were three-nil in favor of the Wild – and it felt like more. While Joey Daccord gave up the game’s first goal mid-period, he showed resiliency to make several quality saves and eight total. The goal was scored by Norway native Mats Zuccarello, his second of the season (he scored the game-winning in Minnesota’s 3-2 home opener victory) and the 200th of his NHL career that started after his star turns at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Kaprizov earned the primary assist, threading the puck to Zuccarello, who went high corner on the glove side in a bang-bang play. The Russia-born Kaprizov had two dangerous shots after the goal and a near-miss just before the disallowed score.

‘Flower’ Long in Bloom, Trusted by Bylsma

In the spring of 2009, Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury played nearly 200 more minutes (the equivalent of 10 periods) in the postseason than any other playoff run in his long career. As he begins his 19^th NHL season, Fleury will make his first start of the year against the head coach who trusted him in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in which goalie and coach and Next Six franchise all won their first Cup.

Kraken coach Dan Bylsma was asked about Fleury and Pittsburgh memories after Friday’s practice. He joked that both he and Kraken assistant coach Bob Woods (who served as an assistant over seven seasons for the Wild) were a bit worried about possible pranks by the ebullient and sometimes mischievous goaltender. Bylsma said they were both sort of waiting for shaving cream in a shoe or a container of water in an unexpected place. But no such hijinks ensued. Woods did get a nice ovation when “welcomed back” by the public address announcer in a first-period TV timeout.