Ales Stezka makes NHL debut, but Kraken fall to Lightning

Kate Shefte, The Seattle Times on Feb 23, 2025

Published in Hockey

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Making his NHL debut at age 28, Kraken goaltender Ales Stezka held the Tampa Bay Lightning to one goal until halfway through the third period Sunday. Seattle managed little goal support and fell 4-1 in Tampa.

Stezka became the fifth goaltender to play a game for the Kraken and turned in a clean, solid performance, helped along by his teammates. The Kraken made sure Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy saw most of the rubber. They outshot Tampa Bay 37-23.

Stezka’s first NHL save was on none other than former league MVP and defending scoring title winner Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov’s wrist shot came 43 seconds into the game.

Kucherov beat Stezka eventually, though, right off a faceoff with 8:45 left in regulation. Brayden Point won a clean draw and got it to his teammate, and within two seconds it was in the back of the net. About a minute and a half later, it was 3-0 off the stick of Tampa Bay’s Luke Glendening.

Kraken center Shane Wright gave his team hope in the final five minutes. He tipped in a Brandon Montour shot while screening Vasilevskiy. Wright now has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games, and a three-game point streak.

Tampa Bay’s first goal came during a Kraken power play. The Lightning, who have the second-most shorthanded goals this season with 10, sprung Brandon Hagel at center ice. With Kraken winger Oliver Bjorkstrand all over him and doing whatever he legally could to dissuade him, Hagel made it 1-0 midway through the second period.

Among Stezka’s 19 saves were a challenging stop on Jake Guentzel in close, and a bobbled shot through traffic from Erik Cernak that the goalie located and dove on.

After his first game in more than three months, captain Jordan Eberle felt good enough to go out and finish the back-to-back. He saw the ice less than he did Saturday, a total of 11:46, with three giveaways.

The Kraken continued a head-scratcher of a tradition on this particular day of the week. Seattle is 0-6 this season in the Sunday game of weekend back-to-backs. The Kraken’s only victory on Sunday, period, was less their doing and more of an implosion on the parts of the flailing New York Rangers. Seattle trailed 3-1 on Dec. 8 before rallying for a 7-5 win.

Stezka was called to the bench for the extra attacker with about four minutes left and the Lightning quickly made it 4-1. Seattle challenged, alleging the play was offsides, and got it called back.

With 1:46 left in regulation Tampa scored another empty netter. The Kraken bench had no argument this time.

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