Seattle Kraken goalie Martin Jones vs. the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 19, 2022. Nov 19, 2022; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Kraken goaltender Martin Jones (30) blocks a shot against the Los Angeles Kings during the second period at Climate Pledge Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
NHLBy Andrew Bucholtz on

The Seattle Kraken came away with a 9-8 home win in overtime over the Los Angeles Kings Tuesday night, and that game made a lot of history. It was the sixth game since NHL expansion in 1967-68 to feature at least 17 goals and be decided by one goal, and the first since the Winnipeg Jets‘ 9-8 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 27, 2011. The second period was particularly wild, with eight different goals scored:

This was also only the 52nd game in all of NHL history to have at least 17 goals. And what it’s maybe most remarkable for is for Seattle goalie Martin Jones getting the win despite giving up all eight goals the Kraken surrendered (on 35 total shots). That’s the first time a NHL goalie has gotten a win while conceding at least eight goals since Mike Vernon allowed eight (on just 22 shots!) in a 10-8 Calgary Flames’ victory over the Quebec Nordiques in 1991. That performance by Jones (seen above in a Nov. 19 game against the Kings) led to some notable tweets:

There have been other goalies to let in at least eight goals and record a victory. This happened quite a bit in the 1980s, when NHL scoring was way up overall. A few examples there include the Vancouver Canucks‘ John Garrett (now a broadcaster!) in 1983 (a 10-9 win over the Minnesota North Stars, now the Dallas Stars, with 31 shots against), the Edmonton Oilers‘ Grant Fuhr in 1984 (a 12-8 win over the North Stars, with 36 shots against), the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ Tim Bernhardt in 1986 (an 11-9 win over the Oilers, with 31 shots against), and the Detroit Red Wings‘ Greg Stefan in 1987 (a 10-8 win over that era’s Jets, who are now the Arizona Coyotes, with 27 shots against).

The other interesting thing to consider is when a goalie gets pulled or not in a game like this. There have been some cases of two goalies sharing a high-scoring win. One of those is the San Jose Sharks‘ 10-8 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1996. There, starter Chris Terreri allowed five goals on 12 shots, but backup Wade Flaherty made 23 saves on 26 shots in relief, giving the Sharks their first-ever victory over the Penguins. (Tom Barrasso was the consistent Penguins’ goalie, allowing nine of the 10 goals, with the other into the empty net.) Here, the Kings made a goalie change, replacing Jonathan Quick (who allowed five goals on 14 shots) with Cal Petersen early in the second period. And while Petersen’s final stats were slightly better (four goals allowed on 16 shots) than Quick’s, sticking with Jones worked out for the Kraken.

This game also led to some amazing postgame comments. Here are some of those, from ESPN:

“End of the day, it was one of those games where last shot wins, and that’s exactly what happened,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s better to be on the winning side and the good side of it than the other, but it’s a crazy hockey game.”

…”It’s a very, very confusing night for all of us,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “I’m really disappointed that we gave up nine goals, absolutely. But on the other side of the coin, I’m glad that we fought back, got a point, and scored eight. So it’s mass confusion right now for all of us, and we better fricking figure it out quickly.”

…Despite securing the win with his second multigoal game in the past three outings, [game-winning goal scorer Andre] Burakovsky wasn’t happy.

“It was kind of a messed-up night,” he said. “We were trading chances, a lot of sloppy plays. I think we played a really bad game, and so did they. We were lucky that they didn’t play good at all.”

While the Kings perhaps “didn’t play good at all,” they did play well enough to score eight goals on Jones. But he played just well enough for that to still get him a win, and made some history in the process.

[NHL Records, ESPN; photo from Steven Bisig/USA Today Sports]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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