Smith stays hot, Sharks hold off Kraken to sweep home-and-home

SEATTLE -- Will Smith scored for the third straight game for the San Jose Sharks, who held off a late rally from the Seattle Kraken for a 4-2 win at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday.

Smith has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past four games.

“[Smith] gets more and more comfortable every time he plays,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Obviously, [the NHL] is a faster game, a team gets really vertical quickly … there’s obviously some things he’ll need to continue to improve on, but I thought he looked comfortable.”

Mackenzie Blackwood made 36 saves, and Jake Walman and Mikael Granlund each had two assists for the Sharks (9-13-5), who won their second straight against Seattle after an 8-5 victory in San Jose on Friday.

“I thought [Blackwood] was really good tonight,” Warsofsky said. “He obviously saw a lot more action than he did in his last game and that probably got him into the game a little more, but he made some huge saves.”

Blackwood faced only 11 shots in a 4-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.

“I was seeing the puck pretty well. Felt pretty good in there, felt comfortable,” Blackwood said. “Guys did a good job of limiting second chances and keeping stuff to the outside.”

Jaden Schwartz and Jared McCann scored for the Kraken (11-13-1), who have lost three straight. Joey Daccord made 19 saves.

“[It’s been a lack of] execution,” McCann said. “Making bad plays with the puck, not getting it deep, and turn the puck over. And it just always seems to kind of go in the back of our net. So when that happens, you’ve just got to simplify. You’re not going to beat teams scoring five, six goals every game.”

Mario Ferraro made it 1-0 Sharks at 16:54 of the first period with a wrist shot from the left circle that banked off Seattle defenseman Will Borgen at the top of the crease and trickled in behind Daccord.

“Mario’s a great teammate, an unbelievable friend, a guy you love to have on your team,” Blackwood said. “So, to see him get rewarded … it’s awesome. I’m really happy for him.”

Luke Kunin pushed it to 2-0 at 1:51 of the second period, taking a drop pass from Ty Dellandrea at the top of the right circle and squeezing a snap shot under Daccord’s blocker.

Cody Ceci scored at 8:59 of the second to make it 3-0, finding a Macklin Celebrini rebound off the end wall and lifting it over Daccord’s left pad.

“It was a good play by [Walman] to keep it in at the blue line. It was kind of an iffy puck,” Ceci said. “I was ready to skate backwards, and then once I saw him keep it in, I just went downhill toward the net and got a good bounce off the end wall.”

Smith made it 4-0 just 46 seconds later at 9:45 with a one-timer over Daccord’s glove off a 2-on-1 rush with Granlund.

Schwartz cut it to 4-1 at 10:17, finding a loose puck in the left circle and snapping a shot past Blackwood’s blocker.

McCann got Seattle within 4-2 at 6:27 of the third period with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that went off the left post and in behind Blackwood.

“It’s very average again for us,” McCann said of Seattle’s effort. “I think we made them look pretty good. I think we did that to ourselves, and we just need to be better.”

Matty Beniers appeared to score with 7.6 seconds left in the third period to make it 4-3, slapping a puck past Blackwood's glove from the bottom of the left circle, but video review confirmed there was goaltender interference.

“We had a 4-1 lead on opening night, and we gave it up,” Warsofsky said. “And tonight, we came into the third period, and I thought was one of our better periods of the night. So we learned how to play the right way.”

NOTES: The Sharks scored 12 goals in two back-to-back contests against the Kraken, their most in a two-game span since they tallied the same amount from Feb. 27 to March 1, 2021. … Vince Dunn returned to Seattle’s lineup after missing 19 games with a mid-body injury sustained in a 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 17. The defenseman was plus-1 in 26:15 of ice time.