SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 As time ran out on Nikke Kokko\u2019s first career NHL start, the 22-year-old Seattle Kraken goalie flung the puck down the ice.<\/p>\n
Salk: Where do the Seattle Kraken go from here?<\/a><\/p>\n The Calgary Flames had already pulled their own goalie, Devin Cooley, as they tried to rally from a two-goal deficit in their 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.<\/p>\n Kokko\u2019s prospective shot on goal was deflected deep in Seattle\u2019s end by Flames forward Morgan Frost, though, ending any hopes of a storybook ending to the Oulu, Finland, native\u2019s second career NHL game.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year, I tried three times, maybe, before that,\u201d Kokko said of his time in the American Hockey League. \u201c\u2026 It was good they (didn\u2019t) score there after I tried.\u201d<\/p>\n The Flames struggled to sneak any shots past Kokko, who made 26 saves. Kokko admitted he was \u201ca little bit nervous\u201d before Saturday\u2019s game, but became more comfortable as he went through pregame warmups.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t hurt to have Victor Ostman, his goalie partner the last two years with the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL, on the scene.<\/p>\n \u201c(We\u2019ve) both had a good year so far,\u201d said Kokko, who made his NHL debut Feb. 25 against the St. Louis Blues and was the youngest goalie to do so at the time. \u201cIt was really nice to share that moment with him.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Kokko and Ostman were present because Seattle\u2019s three goalies were out for different reasons. Starter Joey Daccord and backup Philipp Grubauer had lower-body injuries, and Matt Murray is away from the team tending to a personal matter.<\/p>\n The trickle-down effect left the Firebirds short-handed, and even more so because Coachella Valley\u2019s expected starter, Jack LaFontaine, is out with an illness<\/a>. As a result, the Firebirds signed Vince Stalletti \u2014 their goalie coach \u2014 to an amateur tryout with the intention of having him serve as the team\u2019s backup.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Kokko reunited with Seattle goaltending coach Colin Zulianello, who served in the same capacity for the Firebirds from 2022-25. Kokko was further put at ease by Zulianello\u2019s presence, as most of his family and friends in Finland watched the game from there because there wasn\u2019t enough time to make it to Seattle.<\/p>\n Kokko\u2019s girlfriend did make it to Climate Pledge Arena in time for the game, though.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he prepared me well,\u201d Kokko said of Zulianello, \u201cand he told me I (need) to play just my game, and what I do. I did that.\u201d<\/p>\n In the process, Kokko impressed both his head coach Lane Lambert and forward Freddy Gaudreau, each of whom cracked a smile when discussing the goalie\u2019s attempted shot on net.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen a goalie that almost scored in his first game,\u201d Gaudreau said. \u201cBut, that would have been awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, (if) there\u2019s a time and a place for it, OK,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cJust better not go bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Seattle\u2019s season may not have gone quite as expected. Before their second straight victory, the Kraken were eliminated from playoff contention for a third straight season when the\u00a0Los Angeles Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers 1-0.<\/p>\n But, Seattle\u2019s top goalie prospect demonstrated he can hold his own at this level \u2014 and that he isn\u2019t afraid of taking the occasional risk, too.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Nikke coming in and being his first NHL start, I thought our guys did a good job, and made a concerted effort to give him as much help as possible,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cWhen we needed him, he made some good saves for us.\u201d<\/p>\n More Seattle Kraken news<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0ESPN insider details Seattle Kraken\u2019s path to getting good<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0Kraken co-owner Leiweke sees need for change as team struggles<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0Kraken president Ron Francis stepping down at end of season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 As time ran out on Nikke Kokko\u2019s first career NHL start, the 22-year-old Seattle Kraken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-602836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}