Your San Jose Sharks won a scorefest! Vitek Vanecek allowed five goals, but the Sharks won regardless, scoring eight in the first game of this home-and-home series with the Seattle Kraken. Two-point nights for seven different Sharks headline the madness of the night. Will Smith, Luke Kunin, Klim Kostin, Mikael Granlund, William Eklund, and Jake Walman show you that everyone helped create the mayhem we enjoyed at the Tank tonight—a thirteen-goal thriller from the Bay.
Timothy Liljegren opened the scoring with the help of Tyler Toffoli and Alex Wennberg before the Kraken answered back through Oliver Bjorkstrand. San Jose retook the lead via Klim Kostin, but this battle of the sea creatures continued to go back and forth as Chandler Stephenson knocked home a rebound. Shane Wright struck on the powerplay to make it 3-2 Seattle at the end of the first period, and we got a taste of the insanity in store.
Will Smith tied the game in the second period with the help of Granlund before Wright's second of the night restored Seattle's lead. Jake Walman fired a howitzer through everything to find the back of the net before Mikael Granlund and Macklin Celebrini got in on the fun to extend the Sharks lead to two goals. Yanni Gourde struck before the end of the middle frame to cut the lead to one, but the Sharks continued to hammer the issues in the third.
Ethan Cardwell struck his first NHL goal as he was left alone on a breakaway that Philipp Grubauer flubbed. They don't ask how, but how many as that found the back of the net. Jake Walman added the dagger into the back of an empty net to make it 8-5 San Jose. Have you ever seen an empty net goal to score the team's eighth? It was a chaotic game. The Sharks won.
While it was fun, these two teams will clash again tomorrow night in the Emerald City, and a lot needs to tighten up. There will be a lot of coaching points in this game, and it's easier to show what a team did wrong after a win. Had this been a loss, the coaching staff may have opted to burn the tape and pretend it never happened. Scoring eight is fun, but to be competitive, this defense must come from where it is now.