Kraken fall short to Lightning 4-3 in OT

Seattle had its winning streak snapped at three games on Victor Hedman's goal in extra time.

Oct 15, 2026, 7:19 PM Updated: 7:24 pm

Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken skates during a 2026 game. (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

(Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Captain Victor Hedman scored just over two minutes into overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.

Tampa Bay Lightning 4, Seattle Kraken 3 (OT): Box Score

Hedman crossed the blue line, split the defense and drove straight to the net, tapping the puck through the legs of Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer, who was trying to poke the puck away. Pontus Holmberg got an assist on the goal 2:07 into OT.

Brandon Hagel scored twice and Ilya Mikheyev added a goal for the Lightning, who improved to 4-0-0 at home. The last time Tampa Bay opened a season with four straight wins in 2020-21, when they opened 6-0.

Tampa Bay led 2-1 after two periods and was 3-0 when leading after 40 minutes entering Thursday’s game. Last season, the Lightning were 33-1 when leading after two periods.

Jared McCann, Matthew Beniers and Ryan Winterton scored for the Kraken, which had a three-game win streak snapped. Beniers’ tip-in goal in the third tied the game with 4:19 left in regulation.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves in the win for the Lightning. Grubauer had 31 saves for the Kraken.