Marc-Edouard Vlasic broke a scoreless tie with 12:33 remaining, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 32 saves as the San Jose Sharks defeated the Seattle Kraken 2-0 on Tuesday night.
“It feels good to win,” Vlasic said. “It wasn’t a perfect game, but we found a way. It feels good to play against a team fighting for the playoffs right now.”
Jan Rutta added an empty-net goal for the Sharks, who have won four of their last five games, moving two points ahead of the idle Chicago Blackhawks at the bottom of the NHL standings.
Blackwood earned his first shutout since December 2021 with the New Jersey Devils, marking San Jose’s first shutout of the season.
“I think we have confidence now that we can close a game out, whereas, at the start of the year, we were gripping the sticks a little too tight and making panic plays,” Blackwood said. “But we seem calm and believe we can close a game out, and we did a really good job.”
The Kraken outshot the Sharks 32-22, including 13-3 in the first period, but fell to 6-3 all-time against San Jose. Joey Daccord stopped 20 shots in the loss.
“I thought we played great, generated a lot of offense, carried most of the play,” Daccord said. “Their goalie played unreal. Sometimes, a goalie of that caliber can do that. He stole a game for them tonight.”
Vlasic’s goal was his fourth of the season and second in two games. He beat Daccord high on the blocker side with a wrist shot from the left point. Ty Emberson and William Eklund picked up assists.
Rutta extended his point streak to five games, scoring his third goal of the season with 21 seconds left.
“I thought we got better as the game went on,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “You’re hanging around at 0-0, and I thought we had our best period of the game in the third. Obviously, Blackie made some big saves for us, kept us in it. Like I said, I thought we elevated our game in the third period.”
The Kraken have lost six of their last eight games following a nine-game winning streak. They trail the Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and Nashville Predators by two points for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
“We didn’t look past the Sharks,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “They played their tails off tonight. They defended hard, their goaltender made good saves, and they got the first break offensively. Our guys worked hard tonight.”
San Jose’s leading scorer, Tomas Hertl, missed the game due to a lower-body injury.
Upcoming Games
- Kraken: At Philadelphia on Feb. 10 after the All-Star break.
- Sharks: At Anaheim on Wednesday night.
