Chris Driedger made 24 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Seattle Kraken won the final home game of their inaugural campaign, defeating the San Jose Sharks 3-0 Friday night.
Yanni Gourde, Adam Larsson and Victor Rask scored for the Kraken (27-48-6, 60 points), who snapped a four-game losing streak. Seattle has one contest remaining in the regular season, a makeup game Sunday at Winnipeg after an April 13 game was postponed because of a Manitoba snowstorm.
The Kraken had taken 2-0 leads in three of their previous four games but were unable to close any of them out.
They did so Friday thanks to Driedger, who posted his fifth shutout in 64 career NHL games.
Sharks goalie Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 28 of 30 shots. San Jose (32-37-13, 77 points), which took a 5-4 overtime defeat Thursday in Edmonton before traveling to Seattle, finished its season with three consecutive defeats (0-2-1).
Gourde opened the scoring at 6:17 of the first period.
Defenseman Dennis Cholowski carried the puck over the blue line on a three-on-two rush and fed Karson Kuhlman on the right wing. Kuhlman immediately sent the puck back to Gourde at the top of the right faceoff circle, and his wrist shot beat Kahkonen high to the far post.
It was the 21st goal of the season for Gourde, who helped the Tampa Bay Lightning to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships before being selected in the expansion draft.
The Kraken made it 2-0 at 18:31 of the first period.
Rookie Matty Beniers controlled the puck along the right-wing boards and fed it back to Jamie Oleksiak. A cross-ice pass from Oleksiak to fellow defenseman Larsson at the top of the left faceoff circle set up a one-time blast just inside the far post.
Beniers, the No. 2 overall selection in last summer’s NHL draft, has eight points (three goals, five assists) in nine games since leading the University of Michigan to the NCAA’s Frozen Four.
Rask added an empty-net goal with 52 seconds remaining to clinch the victory.
The Kraken won three of four games in the season series against San Jose.
–Field Level Media
