Friday (Nov. 29) was Black Friday in the United States. If one happened to love hockey, be in San Jose, and went to the SAP Center to see the host Sharks play the Seattle Kraken, they got a heck of a deal on action and goals. It was a veritable goal festival, with the Sharks erupting for seven en route to a 7-5 win over their Pacific Division rivals.
Goals Came Early and Never Stopped
There wasn’t a moment of downtime in this contest. At 2:07 of the opening stanza, San Jose pestered Seattle’s zone, with Tyler Toffoli feeding Timothy Liljegren from behind the net to blast home the opener. 1-0 San Jose.
Don’t hold your breath while reading this.
At 3:03, a turnover in the Sharks zone saw Eeli Tolvanen send a pass to Oliver Bjorkstrand in the slot, who calmly wristed home to make it 1-1.
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At 16:25, Klim Kostin pounced on a juicy rebound in close to send the puck past a down and out Philipp Grubauer. 2-1 Sharks.
At 16:58, Chandler Stephenson won a faceoff in San Jose’s end and, amidst the battle for the puck, found the disc, took it for himself and backhanded a shot to level terms at 2-2.
At 19:16, Shane Wright gave the Kraken its first lead, 3-2, when he tapped a rebound into a gaping net on the power play.
And that was just the first period.
Six More Goals in Second Period
The fun continued after the intermission. Will Smith (not that one) tied the game at 3-3 at the 2:45 mark by beating Grubauer to his left on a partial breakaway and a powerful wrist shot.
Seattle reclaimed the lead via Wright once more. That was on another power play 7:20 into the period when Wright rocketed home a one-timer from Vitek Vanecek’s right.
That, however, would be the last time Seattle was in front. The Sharks raced back for three goals before the second period was over. Jake Walman scored at 8:24, Mikael Granlund at 13:10, and so did 2024 first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini at 14:03, who showed off his sweet wrist shot capabilities in the slot. 6-4 San Jose.
Not to be denied, the Kraken slithered back into the game again at 19:43 through Yanni Gourde.
Calmer Waters in Third Period
The final frame featured only two goals, which might have made it boring by comparison. 22-year-old Ethan Cardwell, a San Jose draftee in 2021, finally earned his first NHL goal at 7:37 with, you guessed it, a nice wrist shot after racing out from the left side.
Amazingly, the only other time the puck found the back of the net was 15:13 when Jake Walman got his brace thanks to an empty netter.
As for the netminders, they were probably glad when the final horn sang. Vanecek let in a quintet of goals on 31 shots for an .839 save percentage (SV%). As for Grubauer, he was beaten seven times on 26 attempts for a risible .731 SV%.
The oddest stat? Considering their whopping eight goals, San Jose was only 0-for-1 on the man advantage. They simply dominated Seattle’s defense and goaltending.
Do fans of these teams want more? They’re going to get it. The Sharks and Kraken go at it for round two on Saturday night (Nov. 30) at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
