The San Jose Sharks young forwards put on an offensive display en route to an 8-5 victory over the Seattle Kraken.
Philipp Grubauer’s struggles continued as he allowed seven goals on 27 shots, posting a .731 save percentage. Vitek Vanecek wasn’t great for the Sharks either, allowing five goals on 31 shots but picked up the win.
Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith and William Eklund combined for two goals and four assists. Shane Wright continued his strong play recording two power play goals.
Timothy Liljegren opened the scoring with a one-timer for the right circle. Tyler Toffoli had the puck behind the net and found the Swedish defenseman wide-open, who beat Grubauer on the first shot he faced. Recent call-up Ryan Winterton was caught puck-watching, which gave Liljegren the space.
Wright and Eeli Tolvanen forced a turnover from young Sharks forward Smith before Tolvanen found Oliver Bjorkstrand all alone in front of the goal. He made no mistake placing it over Vanecek’s glove.
Klim Kostin regained the Sharks lead with a goal as the Kraken’s penalty expired. He picked up a juicy rebound let out by Grubauer. Chandler Stephenson scored his first goal in 17 games to tie the game up 33 seconds after the Sharks took the lead. He jumped on a loose puck during an offensive zone face off before sliding it through the legs of Vanecek.
Wright extended his point streak with a power play goal to give the Kraken their first lead of the game. He was first to the puck after Bjorkstrand’s one-timer clanked off of the boards. Stephenson and Bjorkstrand picked up their second points of the game. The Kraken finished the first period up 3-2 and outshooting the Sharks 15-9.
Smith tied up the game less than three minutes into the second period with a shot from the top of the circle that beat Grubauer five-hole.
Wright scored his second goal of the game on the power play after a cross-ice feed by Stephenson. The 20-year-old centre now has three goals and five points since he was a healthy scratch for three consecutive games.
The Sharks nodded things up with a slapshot from the point by Jake Walman. Celebrini forced a turnover off of Brandon Tanev in the neutral zone before starting the entry at the blue line. He found Eklund in the slot who lost the puck but it landed on the stick of Walman. Mikael Granlund ripped a wrist shot top corner to give the Sharks a 5-4 lead before Celebrini extended the Sharks to 6-4 with a rifle past Grubauer’s blocker.
After a dominant offensive stretch, the Kraken were finally rewarded as Yanni Gourde picked up the loose puck and tapped it into the wide-open cage making it 6-5 with 16.8 seconds remaining in the second period. The Sharks outscored the Kraken 4-2 in the second period despite being outshot 11-10.
Ethan Cardwell scored his first NHL goal to regain the Sharks’ two-goal advantage. Grubauer was beaten from a long-range wrist shot that he deflected with his glove. Walman fired the puck from his own into the Kraken’s vacant goal to extend their lead to 8-5.
The Kraken and Sharks will do this again tomorrow in Seattle and the Kraken will be looking for a different result.
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