Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his 20th goal of the season and added an assist to lead the Seattle Kraken to a 4-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Monday night.
Jared McCann, Matty Beniers, and Shane Wright also found the net for Seattle, while Jordan Eberle contributed an assist for his 700th NHL point. Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves to secure the win.
“I thought we got good contributions from everybody,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Everybody had a piece in it, and that’s really positive.”
Fabian Zetterlund notched a goal and an assist for San Jose, which has lost 19 of its last 21 games. Klim Kostin also scored for the Sharks, and Mikael Granlund extended his point streak to five games with an assist. Mackenzie Blackwood finished with 28 saves.
“You have to be engaged physically if you’re going to give yourself a chance, and we weren’t anything like that in the first 20 minutes,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “It got better in the last 40, but not to the level that we need it to be.”
Beniers opened the scoring just 29 seconds into the game, marking his third straight game with a goal.
“That’s a good way to start the hockey game, especially in this building,” Hakstol said. “We’ve had a couple of nights where we’ve had trouble scoring in here. So that was a good way to get off to a good, positive start.”
Tye Kartye appeared to score Seattle’s second goal a few minutes later, but the Sharks successfully challenged for offside.
Bjorkstrand then made it 2-0 with 8:34 left in the first period.
Zetterlund answered for the Sharks less than three minutes later on the power play, scoring his 21st goal of the year.
The Kraken regained their two-goal lead late in the first when Wright, recalled from Coachella Valley of the AHL earlier Monday, scored his first goal of the season and the second of his career.
“Definitely felt comfortable out there,” Wright said. “Definitely felt like I belong out there. Obviously, playing with (Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle) too, it’s pretty easy playing with two guys like that.”
Kostin brought San Jose back within one at 5:01 of the second period when he deflected Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s point shot past Grubauer.
“All year, I think our resilience is something that we pride ourselves on,” Sharks defenseman Kyle Burroughs said. “Being able to climb back and never say die and keep fighting.”
The score remained 3-2 until the final seconds of the game, when McCann scored an empty-netter for his 28th goal of the year.
“I liked the things that we did there in the third period,” Hakstol said. “We didn’t sit back. We went after it.”
Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn returned to the lineup and recorded an assist after missing 12 games with an upper-body injury.
UP NEXT
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Kraken: Visit Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
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Sharks: Host Los Angeles on Thursday night.
