Kraken score 4 goals in under 6 minutes to rout Sharks

Kraken 6, Sharks 2 at Climate Pledge Arena

Notable: Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour ended a 20-game goal drought, then added another for emphasis as Seattle blew out San Jose on Thursday night.

Montour hadn’t scored since Dec. 14 against Tampa Bay. He had 32 minutes to score a third one and nab his second hat trick of the season, but Eeli Tolvanen deposited Seattle’s only goal of the third period.

Tolvanen extended his goal streak to four games, while teammate Chandler Stephenson had a three-point night (one goal, two assists). Joey Daccord made 26 saves for Seattle.

Stephenson’s goal was the Kraken highlight of a ho-hum first period in which Seattle was outshot, 11-8. A notable lowlight of the 2024-25 Kraken season was a home-and-home sweep at the hands of the Sharks just after Thanksgiving. A fourth straight loss to the league’s worst team did not seem outside the realm of possibility.

Then the Kraken exploded for four goals in 5:49, a franchise record, with a bloody fight thrown in during the second period. First it was right place, right time for winger Oliver Bjorkstrand. Defenseman Vince Dunn’s shot nicked Stephenson’s leg on its way to Bjorkstrand, who was crashing the net. He made it 2-1 Kraken.

Fifty-one seconds later, Montour scored his first of the night. Rookie center Shane Wright forced a turnover along the boards and fed Montour in the slot.

Then winger Jaden Schwartz finished serving a tripping penalty and hustled to rejoin the play. He saw an incoming pass from defenseman Jamie Oleksiak and did an about-face, scoring on a breakaway to push the score to 4-1. He chased Sharks starting goalie Yaroslav Askarov (seven saves), who was replaced by Alexandar Georgiev (19 saves).

Words were exchanged next to Daccord’s net later in the second period, ostensibly in defense of the Seattle goalie. Four of five Kraken skaters squared off with a Shark, except for Wright, who stood in the middle of it all observing until he helped pull someone off Montour.

No one got between Dunn and San Jose defenseman Henry Thrun, whose shoving match escalated into a full-on fight. Though Dunn got the best of the tilt, his nose was bloodied, to the point where he went down the tunnel for the first minute of his five-for-fighting penalty. The bleeding must have let up, so he finished out the punishment and the game.

During 1:13 of 5-on-3 time, Montour struck again, burying a feed from Jared McCann.

Just before the Sharks scored their first goal, Kraken winger Brandon Tanev went to shove San Jose’s Nikolai Kovalenko into the boards. Kovalenko ducked him and Tanev went face-first into the boards. He missed the end of the first period but returned in the second.

Quotable: “Our team, and Vince Dunn, is at their best when they’re engaged and emotional and playing with aggression. If that leads to fisticuffs, yeah.” -Kraken coach Dan Bylsma on whether he approves of Dunn’s fight.

Goal of the game: Schwartz’s breakaway conversion out of the penalty box turned the game into a rout.

Player of the game: Montour (two goals, 23:48 of ice time, second-best among Kraken players).

On tap: The Kraken host the Calgary Flames, proud owners of the last wild-card spot in the West, on Sunday night.

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