EDMONTON, Alta. – Nearly two periods through this Saturday night contest against an almost-Stanley Cup winner from last spring, the sight of Kraken forwards crashing the net and putting pucks into it was a welcome sight indeed.

By that point, John Hayden and Ben Meyers had scored, while Ryan Winterton assisted on a different goal to thrust the Kraken ahead by two with the clock winding down. But the high-octane Edmonton Oilers, who lost Game 7 of the Cup Final to Florida last June, nevertheless came back and handed the Kraken a 5-4 defeat off a goal by Raphael Lavoie with just 2:53 to play.

As for the Kraken, who also got goals from Jacob Melanson and the first in a Kraken uniform by Eduard Sale – the first-round pick last year – courtesy of a nicely feathered Winterton pass, the way their early markers came had to be as nice as the names attached to them.

Hayden, Meyers and Winterton are in a heated battle for a potential fourth line or reserve forward role and all three played as if they knew the focus was on them. So did Melanson for that matter, notching a goal and an assist, though he’s considered more likely to begin his season at the AHL level as will Sale if all keeps going well.

The Kraken don’t have the elite fire power to get into a run-and-gun type game when Conn Smythe Trophy winner Connor McDavid is on the other side with linemates such as 54-goal-man Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. It would be Nugent-Hopkins opening the scoring just more than three minutes in, beating Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer off a McDavid pass with Hyman also drawing an assist.

But that’s when the bigger-bodied Kraken forwards took over, driving to the net against Oilers goalie Olivier Rodrigue and cashing-in often. First, it was Melanson slotting home a rebound off a goalmouth scramble with Meyers drawing an assist.

Then, it was Winterton on the power play, lifting a pass over a stick and across the net front for Sale to one-time it home from just off the right side of the Edmonton net. That made it 2-1 Kraken and even though the Oilers tied it before the period ended, the visitors resumed their net-driving ways in the middle frame.

First, it was Hayden putting the Kraken back ahead by pushing toward the net, a defender draped over him, and redirecting a puck flung his general direction by Brandon Tanev. Myers then scored his second goal of the preseason with just more than two minutes to go in the second for a 4-2 lead that seemed as if it might hold until intermission.

But Mattias Ekholm narrowed the lead to just one goal only 26 seconds later by beating Grubauer up high to the short side. Then, roughly six minutes into the third period, Vasily Podkolzin tied things up for the Oilers while shorthanded off a nice passing play to set the stage for the Kraken’s late-game defeat.

Saturday night’s outing for Grubauer against the powerhouse Oilers marked a good test for a goalie who’s yet to start, as well as he’s finished his three prior Kraken campaigns. After giving up four goals on 19 shots over 40 minutes of action six days prior against Calgary, his full night’s outing in this one loomed large for building the momentum he’d like to generate ahead of the season opener.

“Oh, for sure, we don’t have that many preseason games,” Grubauer had said after Saturday’s morning skate. “It’s not like playing in Europe where we play, like, 16 preseason games. The time is really slim to get into game mode. So, obviously the more minutes you can catch out there, the better it is.”

Grubauer wound up allowing all five goals this time on a hefty 36 shots, so there’s still some fine-tuning to go in adjusting to new systems playing out in front of him. It helped that the Kraken lineup here was a bit more polished than the disjointed one playing in front of Grubauer in the preseason opener.

“That first game, we played with a group that I don’t think is around anymore,” Grubauer said with a chuckle, referring to a plethora of players since returned to the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds or their respective major junior teams.

This month isn’t so much about Grubauer putting up stellar statistics in games that don’t count as much as it is the Kraken having two goalies primed for when the contests do start officially mattering. Between Grubauer and Joey Daccord, the Kraken, on paper, should have the best netminding tandem they’ve put between the pipes in franchise history.

And on a team best known for resiliency and depth, the difference between making and missing the playoffs could very well be decided between the pipes.

It could also be decided by the Kraken’s strong depth across all four lines, evidenced by preseason competition still being waged on a nightly basis by remaining roster contenders.