Prone to weak starts, the Kraken haven’t figured out how to eliminate them. But they can occasionally win in spite of them.

It took another Herculean effort to avoid a five-game skid. Newest recruit Kaapo Kakko scored twice in a third-period goal flurry that carried the Kraken to another multi-goal comeback, 6-2 Saturday afternoon in Buffalo. They erased the Sabres’ 2-0, first-intermission lead and notched their league-best sixth multi-goal comeback this season.

“Dan made it pretty clear (the first period) wasn’t good enough, which I think everybody could agree with,” Kraken winger Oliver Bjorkstrand said. “We had to find another step in our game. We responded well.

“We’ve got to play hockey like that more often.”

Seattle is 8-12-0 when trailing after one period and has secured at least a standing point four times this season when trailing after two. Just over three minutes into the third period of this one, the Kraken took their first lead of the game after a goalmouth scramble. Last season’s All-Star Bjorkstrand was the last to touch it, snapping a personal 11-game goal drought.

Seattle didn’t get on the board until after the game’s halfway point, nearly 13 minutes into the second period. Blueliner Brandon Montour brought the puck behind Buffalo’s net and stalled until his teammates gathered around. Chandler Stephenson found Ryker Evans and the young defenseman pinched in for a wrist shot.

Andre Burakovsky scored a last-minute goal to tie it, his fourth in 40 games. He deposited a rebound of defenseman Josh Mahura’s shot.

Kraken coach Dan Bylsma singled out Burakovsky as a top performer. That goal was Burakovsky’s lone point of the day, but he was plus-three with a five shots on net.

“He doesn’t get three assists, but he could very well,” Bylsma said.

Kakko was sitting on a single goal, scored just before Christmas, since he was traded to Seattle on Dec. 18. He found the net twice in a span of 1:40 early in the third period. The latter was a power-play goal.

Those were the fastest two goals by the same player in the Kraken’s short history. Jaden Schwartz, who scored twice in 2:04 on Feb. 12, 2023, previously held the record.

Kraken winger Brandon Tanev scored the empty-netter from half court. Earlier in the game he absorbed a questionable hit from Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Tanev’s head connected with the boards, then Dahlin’s backside, at which point his helmet flew off.

Tanev was buzzing after that second-period hit and went looking for contact. He nearly had a short-handed breakaway goal but the puck rolled off his stick.

It was another stinker of a first period, with a notable exception. The lightest player on Seattle’s roster Saturday afternoon — he has one pound on Yanni Gourde, who remains on injured reserve — and one of their least likely to drop the gloves, Bjorkstrand logged his third career fight and first since 2021. He backed into Buffalo defenseman Dennis Gilbert along the boards while following the puck and landed on top of Gilbert. Gilbert popped up, heated, and dropped the gloves. Bjorkstrand gamely went along, but from what the cameras showed, he got one shaky swing in.

“We tiptoed into the game a little bit,” Bylsma said. “When you see Oliver Bjorkstrand get into the fight, A) do the physicality, and B) get into a fight, it jump starts the team a little bit.”

After Bjorkstrand fought and then scored, he only needed an assist for a second career “Gordie Howe hat trick,” a beloved, semi-official stat that honors the hockey legend. Though three Seattle goals followed his own, he didn’t have a helper on any of them.

Goaltender Joey Daccord, who entered in relief Thursday in Columbus, made his first start since Dec. 22 due to injury and recorded 34 saves.

Seattle plays tomorrow morning in Detroit. That’s the middle stop of a five-game road trip.

“Maybe we can get a lead and build off that, instead of playing from behind,” Bjorkstrand said.

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