The first few games of the NHL’s new season has been marked by the tenuous hold teams have on leads. The number of blown two-goal leads this season has been equivalent to a donut give-away at Krispy Kreme on a Friday. 
On Wednesday night, the St Louis Blues took a 3-1 first period lead over the Kraken in Seattle.
The Kraken rallied with two strikes in the middle frame for a 3-3 tie.
Justin Faulk‘s second goal of the game gave the Blues 4-3 win.
“Just a good job by [Robert Thomas] to stay on it,” Faulk said. “We got pressure pretty good there on the half wall and then even down low. Just kind of keeping it a little greasy, and then it popped out to ‘Vladi’ in front and just a nice, heads-up play by Vladi to see me come in.”
Jordan Binnington made 32 saves in the Blues win.
“We’ll take the two points, but it definitely was pretty ugly,” Faulk said. “Second and third period, we kind of got outskated and got outworked. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s probably good for us to see that some teams that are playing with pace already, you know? We’re a little behind the eight ball on games played, but we need to pick up our pace and do it the whole game.”
Jordan Kyrou staked the Blues to a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Seattle replied with a strike from Will Borgen for a 1-1 tie.
“We played a good hockey game,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s two, three minutes in the first period we gave up a couple of quick ones, but [they] regained their composure and played a [heck] of a hockey game.
” … This is our hockey team tonight. The way we battled, competed and executed, the pace and the tenacity that we played with. Tonight is a good standard to go off of and continue to build from.”
Brayden Schenn and Faulk scored to give the Blues their two-goal lead.
Ryan Donato scored off a rebound of his breakaway attempt to get the Kraken within 3-2.
“I know he finishes hard, and he doesn’t give up on plays,” Binnington said of Donato. “It’s kind of what happened there; made the first save, and he stayed with it. And I was in a good position to get that rebound.”
Seattle’s Adam Larsson erased the two-goal deficit when he tied the game, 3-3, in the middle frame.
Martin Jones made 24 saves in the loss.
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