Soucy scores two goals, Kraken hold off Sharks

SEATTLE -- Carson Soucy scored twice for his first multigoal NHL game, and the Seattle Kraken defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-2 at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.

Philipp Grubauer made 22 saves and Mark Giordano had two assists for the Kraken (12-23-4), who won for the second time in a row after a nine-game losing streak. Calle Jarnkrok scored his 100th NHL goal.
"We slept-walked through the first period, you know, and credit to our to our guys to be able to work our way back into this game," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "That's not an easy thing to do. We've talked about how hard it is to play from behind in this League before."

Timo Meier scored for the Sharks (21-17-2) who lost in regulation for the second time in their past five games (3-1-1). Tomas Hertl scored and had an assist, and Adin Hill made 16 saves.
"I think that first period we were good," Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. "I thought the only thing we had going early on was Hertl. There were flashes on some other lines here and there, but it just wasn't for 60 the minutes we need. We can't depend on one line. When you're on the road against a team that's desperate, it's harder to win, and you have to do the things that we talked about every day, and you have to have an identity that we know gives us success. I don't think there was enough tonight."
Hertl made it 1-0 at 38 seconds of the first period after Kraken forward Alex Wennberg threw the puck into the high slot. Alexander Barabanov intercepted, and passed to Hertl, who scored.
"They managed the game better," Hertl said. "This is a tough loss because everybody knows what is coming, you know, just last five games before the break. It's probably one of the toughest road trips for now in the NHL. We've we played some good hockey against good teams at home, and we just didn't show up today."
Seattle tied it 1-1 at 8:25 of the second period when Giordano found Soucy alone in the face-off circle at 4:18. Soucy took a couple of strides and scored with a wrist shot to make it 1-1.
Ryan Donato appeared to score 6:45 but the Sharks successfully challenged for offside.
Soucy scored at 8:25 to make it 2-1. The Seattle defenseman got tangled with Wennberg in the slot before finding the puck and getting the goal with a quick shot.
Jarnkrok made it 3-1 at 6:27 of the third period when he scored after a backhand pass from Morgan Geekie from behind the Sharks net.

Meier, who scored a Sharks record five goals on Monday against the Los Angeles Kings, cut the lead to 3-2 on the power play at 9:37 with a shot from the face-off circle to Grubauer's left.
San Jose was 1-for-6 on the power-play, including 1-for-5 in the third period. Grubauer made eight saves while shorthanded.
"You have to find a way and that's exactly what we did on the PK," Hakstol said. "We bent but we didn't break. I've talked about that before and the PK gave up the one in the third period and gave them a couple of free power plays which is … a lot of times comes back to bite you but again I like the mentality that guys were able to just put all that aside and just go and do the job. That's a big piece of the game."
Grubauer made a glove save on a Hertl breakaway at 13:29 of the second period. It was Grubauer's second consecutive win in which he allowed two goals.
"We still know we got some cleanup to do," Soucy said. "[Grubauer] was awesome tonight for us. Big saves, we just need to focus on trusting him to make the first save. Try to not give them a second chance. That's kind of what we've been really working on lately and he did a great job."
NOTES: Thursday was the fourth straight game that Seattle goalies allowed two or fewer goals. … The Kraken are 2-0-0 against San Jose this season. … Geekie was activated from injured reserve after missing four games with an upper-body injury. The forward had an assist in 8:21 of ice time.