SEATTLE — Philipp Grubauer made 27 stops and turned away a penalty shot but the Seattle Kraken couldn’t kick their bad tendencies in a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

The Kraken’s two heathy goalies have traded places every game for the past month, unless a back-to-back briefly altered the pattern. It wasn’t a back-to-back and it should have been Joey Daccord’s turn, after Philipp Grubauer’s 24-save effort against the New York Islanders on Wednesday.

Seattle has dropped Daccord’s last three stars. The hotter Grubauer got the nod in this divisional matchup of teams barely hanging onto a playoff spot.

For the fourth time in six games, the Kraken allowed a goal in the first three minutes of the game. Extend that to the first five minutes and the Kraken have surrendered an early goal in eight of their last nine outings.

Eeli Tolvanen tried to move the puck through the neutral zone but had his pass picked off. Ducks winger Cutter Gauthier hugged the boards and got past both members of the Kraken’s top defensive pairing before beating Grubauer far side.

An even more embarrassing trend than the early goals allowed is the short-handed goals allowed, and that one continued next. Once again, it was Vince Dunn losing a footrace, this time with Ryan Poehling. The latter made it 2-0 Ducks while the Kraken were on the power play.

A week and a half ago, the Kraken had allowed three short-handed goals all season, good for 14th in the NHL. In just the past five games, they’ve allowed four and are now one behind the league leaders. The New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche have each allowed eight.

The shot clock read 12-3 Anaheim after the first period, and the score could have been worse. The Ducks were missing several major key players including Frank Vatrano (fractured shoulder), Leo Carlsson (lower body), Troy Terry (upper body) and Mason McTavish (upper body). The Ducks had taken over third place in the Pacific Division, which is where the Kraken want to be.

This was a winnable game, and not one to give up on. Jared McCann came to play as usual and ripped a Jordan Eberle feed into the roof of the net less than two minutes into the second period.

But Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans took a delay-of-game penalty 43 seconds later and once the Ducks set up, Grubauer was under siege. He stopped two slap shots in four seconds, but a rebound spat out to Anaheim’s Chris Kreider and he buried it.

Kraken defenseman Ryan Lindgren put an arm around Anaheim’s Jansen Harkins while Harkins had a clear path to the net. The Ducks were awarded a penalty shot. Grubauer tried an aggressive poke check and hit the puck so squarely off Harkins’ stick, it hit the shooter instead of the net. No goal, and Anaheim’s lead remained 3-1.

Jaden Schwartz used every bit of his 5-foot-10 frame, and then some, to stretch out and tap a Shane Wright feed past Anaheim goaltender Lukas Dostal and put Seattle within a goal.

The Kraken still had 18 minutes to tie the game. The bench summoned Grubauer with just under two minutes to play and called a timeout to strategize, but never got to put the plan in play. After Tim Washe kicked his faceoff win back to his teammates, Pavel Mintyukov banked an impressive shot off the boards and into the empty Seattle cage.

Seattle has won two of its past nine games. There are two overtime losses and “loser points” during that stretch as well.

Jacob Melanson returned to the Kraken lineup after a brief American Hockey League reassignment. He recorded a career-high and game-high 10 hits.

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