Kraken hold on to beat Sharks in 3-2 thriller
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In front of an electric crowd at Climate Pledge Arena, the Seattle Kraken would win their second game in a row. The Kraken would defeat the San Jose Sharks by a score of three to two behind Carson Soucy’s two goal performance, as San Jose would join Buffalo as the only teams to lose to Seattle twice this season. Seattle would pick up another win, this time against a divisional opponent, in the first night of a back-to-back.
The performance of the night would come from defensemen Carson Soucy, who would record his first ever multigoal NHL game. Soucy would score two goals, both coming in the second period to give Seattle lead after an early Sharks goal by Tomas Hertl. In Soucy’s 16 minutes of ice time, he would record a 3 +/- and be the clear candidate for the player of the game. With tonight’s two goals, Soucy is one goal off of his career high for goals in a season. The defenseman would reflect on it post game, as well as his overall performance.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to have this many at this point in the season. Just trying to create when I can, trying to be smart when I’m jumping in the rush, shooting pucks when I can. I think that we responded well, and that’s a big part of our group moving forward, is how we respond after an early goal.”
Something to work on in the January 20th win over San Jose would be the overall sloppiness that the team showed, especially in the third period. Similar to what we have seen throughout the season, the Sharks were able to score just 38 seconds into the opening period as Tomas Hertl took advantage of a turnover near Seattle’s goal. In the final period, the Kraken drew four penalties, including a call for too many men on the ice. While San Jose would score on one of those power plays, the Seattle power kill would do their job on the other opportunities. That gritty play against the fourth-place team in the Pacific division would get Seattle their second win in a row. Head coach Dave Hakstol would reflect on the win and the play of his team.
“The consistency in our game wasn’t there, we slept walked through that first period. Credit to our guys to be able to work our way back into this game, that is not an easy thing to do. We have talked about how hard it is to play from behind in this league before. Wins come in all shapes and forms, in this one we had our ups and downs. I give our guys a lot of credit for stepping up in the second and third periods and to find a way to get it done when we weren’t at our best,” Hakstol would remark.
While it is obvious that this team has a lot to work on still, these back-to-back wins show promise that the team is improving after seemingly not knowing how to do so. Seattle had the issues right in front of their face that needed fixing, but as captain Mark Giordano remarked prior in the season, the team kept finding new ways to lose. In the past two wins against Chicago and San Jose, the Kraken have seen good goaltending, creative offense, and mostly good defensive performances to get tough gritty wins. This could be the start of the turnaround, if the team continues to adjust and clean up their issues as they have in these past two contests.
Seattle will play the second game of their back-to-back on January 21st, against the St. Louis Blues with a 7PM PST puck drop.