Ryan Donato scored against his former team and Chris Driedger made 33 saves as the expansion Seattle Kraken defeated the host San Jose Sharks 3-1 Tuesday night.
Brandon Tanev and Calle Jarnkrok also tallied for the Kraken, who snapped a three-game winless streak (0-2-1).
Logan Couture scored and goaltender James Reimer stopped 27 of 29 shots for the Sharks, who suffered their fourth loss in their past six games.
The game’s first goal came at 6:23 of the third period from the Kraken’s Shark line, so named because all three of its members – Donato, Joonas Donskoi and Alexander True – all previously played in San Jose.
Defenseman Carson Soucy’s shot from the right point was tipped by Donskoi, with Donato setting a screen at the top of the crease. Reimer made the initial stop but Donato backhanded the rebound toward the net and it deflected off the skate off the Sharks’ Radim Simek and over the goal line.
Tanev made it 2-0 at 14:18 of the period, taking a backhanded pass from Morgan Geekie on a two-on-one break and beating Reimer from the low slot.
With Reimer pulled for an extra attacker, Couture spoiled Driedger’s bid for the first shutout in franchise history at 17:53. Brent Burns’ shot from the left point deflected off the skate and right to Couture in the opposite faceoff circle and he put a one-timer into the open side of the net.
Jarnkrok clinched the victory with an empty-netter with six seconds left.
Driedger, making his first appearance since Nov. 29 because of a lower-body injury, won his third consecutive start.
Driedger got some help as teammates Jamie Oleksiak and Adam Larsson both cleared pucks off the goal line early in the second period. The latter came after San Jose’s Matt Nieto corralled a rebound, maneuvered around a sprawling Driedger and slid the puck toward an open net. Larsson smothered the puck just shy of the goal line with his stick and coolly cleared it.
-Field Level Media