Mackenzie Blackwood makes 32 saves as Kraken suffer 2-0 loss to Sharks
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 30: Mackenzie Blackwood #29 San Jose Sharks stops the puck against the Seattle Kraken at SAP Center on January 30, 2024 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Andreea Cardani/NHLI via Getty Images)
The last game before the All-Star break was one of the disappointing results the Seattle Kraken have had in the short history of the franchise.
Marc-Édouard Vlasic beat Joey Daccord with a shot through traffic with 12:33 left to play, and Mackenzie Blackwood stopped all 32 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season as the Seattle Kraken lost 2-0 to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
Jan Rutta scored on an empty net with 21 seconds to play to seal the loss for Seattle.
"It’s frustrating," defenseman Adam Larsson said. "This was a big game for us and we couldn’t end up on the good side.
The Kraken desperately needed a victory against a Sharks team that carried the second-worst record in the NHL into Tuesday night’s game. The Columbus Blue Jackets did Seattle a favor earlier in the night with a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues, who the Kraken are chasing in the Wild Card race. A win over San Jose would have moved the Kraken into a four-way tie for the final two playoff spots with 54 points each among Seattle, St. Louis, Nashville and Los Angeles.
Instead, the Kraken squandered a ripe chance to make up ground against the Sharks.
"We’re in a spot where we’re desperate for points and I think we should do a lot better job in the third," Larsson said. "The game is right there for us and obviously it comes down to one or two shots, but I thought we could generate a lot more in the third."
Seattle now sits two points out of the final playoff spot with both the Kings and Blues having games in hand on the Kraken. Los Angeles has played three fewer games than Seattle with one game left to play on Wednesday before their break.
The Kraken seemed ripe to seize their opportunity as they dominated play in the first period with nothing to show for their efforts. They held a 13-3 advantage in shots on goals in the opening frame, which included a trio of shots on the powerplay that included a shot off the post from Jared McCann. Brandon Tanev also picked off a pass to create a breakaway look that Blackwood turned aside.
A prime chance for Seattle came late in the period off forechecking pressure from Eeli Tolvanen. Tolvanen forced a turnover behind the San Jose net and an Oliver Bjorkstrand chance slightly deflected off Vlasic before hitting the post and deflecting away.
San Jose leveled out the play in the second period as neither team could muster the first score of the night. The Kraken successfully killed off a questionable Jamie Oleksiak holding penalty as the game remained scoreless through 40 minutes.
Blackwood and Daccord traded strong saves as Blackwood denied a chance for Adam Larsson and Daccord stopped chances for Luke Kunin and Jacob MacDonald.
"Their goalie played unreal and sometimes a goalie of that caliber can do that. He stole a game for them tonight," Daccord said.
But the longer the Kraken allowed the Sharks to stick around, the more inevitable it became that San Jose was going to find a goal. Vlasic eventually had a shot sneak through multiple moving players in front of the net to beat Daccord for the opening goal of the game.
"We had three or four really good opportunities in each of the first two periods and weren’t able to get that first goal." Hakstol said. "They found that first goal on a seeing-eye shot. I don’t think Joey probably had a chance to see that. It went through two layers of a screen and that’s the difference in the hockey game."
Daccord was pulled with under two minutes left to play and the Kraken did create some pressure in the San Jose zone, but were unable to find the net. Instead, Rutta found the open net from the Sharks zone to sink Seattle.
"We didn’t (look past this one)." Hakstol said. "They played their tails off on the other side tonight. They defended hard, their goaltender made good saves and they got the first break offensively. Our guys worked hard tonight."