The San Jose Sharks allowed four goals in less than eight minutes to start the second period in what became a 6-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena.
With the game tied 1-1 after the first period, the Sharks allowed even strength goals to Oliver Bjorkstrand and Brandon Montour with 51 seconds apart, with Montour’s goal, coming off a bad San Jose turnover, giving the Kraken a 3-1 lead at the 2:54 mark of the second period.
After the Sharks failed to capitalize on a power play opportunity, Jaden Schwartz, just after his tripping penalty had expired, took a pass from Jamie Oleksiak, raced in on a breakaway and beat goalie Yaroslav Askarov on a breakaway for his 18th goal of the season.
Askarov was then pulled by Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky, as the rookie goalie had allowed four goals on 11 shots, although he had little to no chance on one or two of the goals against.
With Alexandar Georgiev coming in for Askarov, Montour capped the scoring at the 7:52 mark of the second. With the Kraken on 5-on-3, Montour took a pass from Jared McCann and beat Georgiev for his 10th goal of the year.
Carl Grundstrom and Tyler Toffoli scored for the Sharks, who have now lost seven of their last eight games.
Grundstrom’s goal, at the 17:55 mark of the first period, came when he tried to return a pass in front of the Seattle net to Will Smith, but the pass went off Shane Wright’s skate and past Kraken goalie Joey Daccord.
Toffoli’s goal came in the third period and gave him 18 on the season.
At the 6:39 mark of the second period, Sharks defenseman Henry Thrun got into his second career fight as a professional as he and Kraken defensemen Vince Dunn dropped the gloves to the side of the Seattle net. Both players received five minute fighting majors, but forward Nikolai Kovalenko received an extra two minutes for roughing.
Kovalenko finished the second period but did come out for the third period for undisclosed reasons.
For the game, the Sharks were without several players, including center Alexander Wennberg, who has a nagging upper body injury and was ruled of Thursday’s game in the morning. Also injured for the Sharks right now are forwards Nico Sturm and Ty Dellandrea, and Klim Kostin, and defenseman Jan Rutta.
Originally Published:
Source: Paradise Post
