Entering play on Thursday night, the Seattle
Kraken had only 11 victories in 38 games. One of those was a 3-1 win over San
Jose on December 14th. They doubled up their win total on the Sharks with a 3-2
victory at Climate Pledge Arena. San Jose squandered a flurry of power play
chances in the 3rd period to drop a crucial 2 points in a game they should have
easily won.
The Kraken have struggled of late, winning only once in
their prior 10 games. San Jose just seemed uninspired and anything but the
better team. In that crucial 3rd period, the Kraken played half the period a
man down, but the Sharks simply squandered their chances.
The Sharks
would only generate 5 shots in that 3rd period. 5 shots with more than 10
minutes of 5-on-4 advantage was simply disastrous for a team that needs to
establish some consistency on special teams.
The Sharks picked up
right where they left off on Monday, when Tomas Hertl punched home his 21st
goal of the season just 38 seconds into the contest. Alexander Barabanov
collected the puck from the slot, pushing it to the right post where Hertl was
parked for the easy deposit past Kraken goaltender Phillip Grubauer.
Barbanov just missed on another primary assist when he setup Erik Karlsson with
a diagonal pass to the same spot that Hertl scored his goal 4 minutes later,
but Grubauer snuffed out the scoring chance.
Karlsson would take a
holding penalty at 12:47, but the Sharks took care of business killing the
penalty.
Carson Soucy tied the game 4:18 into the 2nd period, when he
used a screen in front of Sharks goaltender Adin Hill. The Kraken defenseman
shot the puck from the right dot, picking the top left corner to beat Hill, who
never saw the shot.
The Kraken appeared to take a 2-1 lead 7 minutes
into the period when former Shark forward Ryan Donato punched home a rebound
off a long shot. The Sharks challenged the entry for offside, which was
confirmed by video review to negate the goal.
Seattle would score on
the next shift when Soucy jumped on a loose puck in the slot and shot through
Hill's pads. Nick Bonino tried to sweep the puck out of the Sharks zone but he
whiffed on the clearing attempt.
The Sharks opened the 3rd period by
drawing a slashing penalty on Soucy. The league's 22nd ranked power play
quickly squandered the opportunity, generating a lone shot right before the
penalty expired.
That would be costly for San Jose, as the Kraken
responded with a Calle Jarnkrok goal at 6:27 of the period. Morgan Geekie drew
two defenders towards the back of the net, leaving Jarnkrok all alone in front
of the net. The centering pass left Jarnkrok to literally shoot a fish in a
barrel, burying his 6th goal of the season.
Jeremy Lauzon took a holding penalty at the 9:00
mark, which put the Sharks on the power play for the 3rd time in the game. Timo
Meier converted 37 seconds into the power play. Hertl fought off two defenders
to push the puck out to Logan Couture from behind the end line. Couture
immediately sent the puck across the slot to Meier on the right side for the
one time chance.
Lauzon would head back to the box for high sticking
Matt Nieto at 10:09, but the Sharks would do nothing with the chance.
Mason Appleton was called for tripping with 67 remaining in regulation, but the
Sharks were simply chasing their own tails with the man advantage. They would
nothing with the advantage, and as a result, fall to the Kraken for the second
time this season.
Game Notes: * Mark Giordano took
exception to a hard check by rookie Adam Raska late in the 2nd period. The
Kraken captain went after Raska, throwing haymakers at the young forward.
* The Sharks were 1-2 in the regular season against the Vegas Golden
Knights in 2017 (the Knights inaugural season), and 2-3 against the in the
playoffs. That's a combined 3-7 against the last two teams to enter the league
in those team's fist year in the league.
* Andrew Cogliano, Nick
Bonino, Jaycob Megna, Erik Karklsson and Matt Nieto were a combined -10 on the
night.
* Adin Hill has lost his last 3 starts, surrendering 7 goals in
those games. He would allow 3 goals on Thursday night on only 18 shots.
* The Sharks have become a one-line team. The need for secondary
scoring from their other lines is killing San Jose. Andrew Cogliano has gone 11
games without a goal. Jonathan Dahlen 13 games, Noah Gregor 19 games.
