Yanni Gourde scored 12:17 into overtime as the Seattle Kraken overcame a spectacular four-goal performance by Joe Pavelski to defeat the Dallas Stars 5-4 in Game 1 of their Western Conference Semifinal series at the American Airlines Center.
Jordan Eberle had a goal and an assist and Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves for Seattle.
Game 2 is Thursday night.
Pavelski had been out of action since sustaining a concussioni n the second period of Game 1 of Dallas' first-round series against Minnesota following a collision with Wild defenseman Matt Dumba.
"Excited to be back, that's for sure", he said. "First lap of warmups, felt a shot of adrenaline right there, was excited. Starting the game was just as much fun.
"We battled all night. It was a good game. We were right there. Obviously tough loss, we want to get those."
Max Domi assisted on three of Pavelski's four goals and Jake Oettinger stopped 39 shots.
"I thought we did a good job of crawling back in that game", Domi said. "Joe dragged everyone into the fight with him, so a lot of godo to build on from that, but it would've been nice to get the [win].
"But that's why it's a seven-game series, right? So we'll clean up some things and be ready to go for Game 2."
Gourde wins it for Kraken after epic performance by Pavelski
Pavelski put Dallas in front 1-0 as he beat Grubauer wrist shot from the right faceoff circle following a steal of the puck by Domi in the neutral zone while Seattle was on a line change.
The goal ended the Kraken's remarkable streak of scoring first as they had opened the scoring in all seven games of their first-round series against Colorado.
Following a Seattle forecheck the puck was turned over in the offensive zone and Eberle found Morgan Geekie, who passed to Jaden Schwartz in the slot as he tied the game.
Pavelski tipped the puck in from the high slot with 7:42 left in the second period to give the Stars the lead again.
Justin Schultz tied it at 2-2 from the right circle following a scrum that saw Ryan Donato dig out the puck and the Kraken had their first lead of the game 11 seconds later when Oliver Bjorkstrand, the hero of Game 7 against Colorado, saw his shot deflect in off Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell.
Scoring for the third time in 52 seconds, Eberle tipped Vince Dunn's point shot from the slot to give Seattle a two-goal advantage.
"That's not a typical first period in playoff hockey, but sometimes you get those", said Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol. "There's a lot going on there.
"Obviously, on the defensive side, play without the puck, we've got to clean some things up there. What I did like is we go down and [were] able to push back right away and just do it in a way where we've generated offense that way all year.
"We were able to get inside a little bit, which you have to do on Oettinger. That was a big part of some of the offense we were able to create."
Pavelski picked up his hat-trick with 10:10 remaining in the third period on a rebound from the slot. He tied the game by tipping home a centering pass by Jani Hakanpaa.
"Epic, epic [return]", said Dallas coach Peter DeBoer. "Shame we wasted it and didn't win. That's on our group because he more than did his part. He tried to drag us to a win here tonight.
"Just some uncharacteristic mistakes, two faceoff goals, essentially, off missed assignments. Just didn't play hard enough for long enough with enough detail in our game.
"I think that's what you get this time of year. It reminds me a little bit of Game 1 against Minnesota. We turn it on late, had some chances in overtime, but just need a little bit more for a little bit longer."
Gourde won it for Seattle in overtime, collecting the puck off of a rebound with traffic in front of the net, spinning and scoring past Oettinger in the far top corner from the lower right faceoff circle.
"We're a pretty mature group in there and we trusted that the process was going to get it done", Gourde said. "Keep working and keep at it and eventually we were going to get our break, and we got it there."