The Sharks picked up right where they left off
on Saturday night. After beating the Seattle Kraken 8-5 on Friday afternoon,
San Jose jumped on the Kraken for a 4-2 victory at Climate Pledge Arena in
Seattle. Four different Sharks scored for the Sharks and Mackenzie Blackwood
made 36 saves to earn his 5th win of the season. The Sharks jumped out to a 4-0
lead then held on for their 3rd victory in the last 4 games.
It was an
about face from the crushing opening night loss to the St Louis Blues when San
Jose blew a 4-goal lead in that contest. The Kraken tried clawing back but San
Jose may have learned a thing or two from that October 10th debacle.
The two teams traded power play chances in the first half of the 1st period.
That netted San Jose a pair of decent scoring chances, but no goals. The Kraken
were less threatening as the Sharks penalty killers did a great job of forcing
turnovers in the defensive zone.
Mario Ferraro put the Sharks up 1-0
with 3:06 remaining in the period on a shot through traffic that weaved past
Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord. The Sharks defenseman scooped up a loose puck
in the space between the left circle and the high slot before whipping it to
the Kraken net.
Luke Kunin was called for holding with 17 seconds
remaining in the period, allowing the Kraken to carry over 1:43 of
man-advantage time to start the 2nd period. Seattle missed on the chance, but
San Jose capitalized right after the penalty expired.
The Sharks broke
out of their own zone with Jake Walman skating the puck up the left wing.
Walman fed Ty Dellandrea in the slot who cut to this right and dropped the puck
to Kunin, who ripped a shot past Dacord. Dellandrea did a great job of
screening Daccord after setting up Kunin.
San Jose added their 3rd
goal at 8:59 when Cody Ceci pounced on a deflection and fired it home from the
right side of the net. Macklin Celebrini setup the goal by cutting through the
slot and firing a shot that Daccord could only stop with his chest. The big
rebound directed right to Ceci for his 1st goal as a Shark.
Will Smith
scored his 5th goal of the season 46 seconds later after the Kraken just missed
on prime scoring chance at the other end of the rink. Mikael Granlund carried
the puck up the left side on a 2-on-1 before feathering a pass over the stick
of defenseman Jamie Oleksiak. Smith received it and whipped it home for the 4-0
lead.
Seattle answered 32 seconds later when Jaden
Schwartz potted a goal. Matty Beniers threew a puck off the end boards which
kicked back toward the left post where Mackenzie Blackwood deflected back out
toward the left dot. Schwartz then chipped the big rebound over Blackwood's
right shoulder to get the Kraken on the board.
San Jose went into
prevent mode to start the 3rd period, which worked for the first 6 minutes of
the period. Jared McCann countered that with his 10th goal of the season.
McCann skated up the left wing and used Sharks defenseman Jan Rutta as a
partial screen as he unloaded on a shot from the left dot.
As was the
case on Friday, Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma was forced to pull his goaltender
early. Daccord came off with 3:29 left in regulation as Seattle tried to draw
closer to San Jose's lead.
Matty Beniers appeared to cut the Sharks
lead to a single goal with 7.6 seconds left in regulation, but the NHL
Situation Room called for a review of the play for goaltender interference. The
would be goal was wiped off the board after it was determined that Yanni Gourde
made contact with Blackwood.
And just like that the Sharks offense has
come to life.
Game Notes: * Klim Kostin injured his
right leg or knee early in the 2nd period. He was able to skate to the bench
but was then sent back to the locker room for further evaluation. He would miss
a couple of shifts before making his way back into the game.
* Jake
Walman extended his point scoring streak to 5 games with his 2 assists on the
night. the Sharks defenseman has recorded 2 goals and 5 assists in that span.
* Will Smith has scored goals in 3 straight games, giving him 5 total
for the season. The rookie centerman appears to be playing without the weight
of the team on his shoulders. The 1st year player did not score his first goal
through his first 9 NHL games, which seemed to wear on him. That has not been
the case the last 3 games.
* The Sharks are suddenly getting scoring
from their defensive corps. San Jose's blueliners had not scored in the first
10 games of the season. They have 12 goals from the blueline since October
29th.
* The Sharks will play Seattle two more times this season. They
will return to Climate Pledge Arena on January 30th, then the two teams will
square off in San Jose on April 5th.
