Husso makes 27 saves, Blues score five in shutout of Kraken

SEATTLE -- Ville Husso made 27 saves for the St. Louis Blues in a 5-0 win against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday.

Tyler Bozak scored for the first time since Nov. 22, and Brayden Schenn scored for the third time in two games for the Blues (24-11-5), who have won five of their past six. It was Husso's second shutout of the season and third in the NHL.
"I told you we're going to use both goalies (Husso and Jordan Binnington) and we are continuing to do that," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "Ville came off a real good outing and it was just as a decision that I went with."
Husso's previous shutout was Oct. 25 when he made 34 saves in a 3-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings.
"After that penalty kill, I felt like I was in the game," Husso said of David Perron's minor penalty for an illegal check to the head of Seattle forward Marcus Johansson at 4:11 of the first period. "I think for a goalie it's a lot of mental stuff and when you get a couple of games you feel good, that's hockey. There was a lot of blocking shots. Have to give credit to the [defensemen] and the forwards, and I wish we could play like that every game. Every day, I try to get better and work hard."

Joey Daccord made 26 saves for the Kraken (12-24-5), who were shut out at home for the second time this season (3-0 loss to Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 9).
"We fall behind early, we're down 2-0 and we're fighting to try and get back in the game," forward Jordan Eberle said. "Probably pressing more than we should and we hung Joey out to dry too much. They had a ton of chances and Joey played really well. He had some huge saves and kept it tighter than perhaps it was, we played better in the second, and then in the third, first shift, we let one in … we had a little bit of momentum after winning two in a row, had a chance to win back to back. Obviously, it didn't go our way."
Bozak scored shorthanded at 5:54 of the first period to make it 1-0. Brandon Saad stole the puck in the neutral zone creating a 2-on-1 break and passed it across the ice to Bozak.
"[Shorthanded goals are] always a Iift and I thought our penalty killers did a great job," Berube said. "We took too many penalties, a couple were unnecessary, but the PK did a great job. And the power-play goals are big goals too. But when you get a shorthanded goal, it's a huge lift. And it's all work-based basically. So our PK did a lot of good things for us tonight."

Schenn made it 2-0 at 10:23 with a power-play goal by knocking in a rebound off a Ryan O'Reilly shot that trickled through Daccord.
Pavel Buchnevich, who missed the previous two games in NHL COVID-19 protocol, made it 3-0 24 seconds into the third period on a one-timer from the right face-off circle after Torey Krug passed him the puck on the rush.
"That's a good team over there, they don't give up much and we didn't generate much at all against them," Kraken captain Mark Giordano said. "A lot of it has to do with mindset, simple is always better to me in starting games, getting pucks in. Tonight, it's a shorthanded goal … at the end of the day getting behind in this league is way too hard to come back. Especially against a team that plays as structured as they do."
Colton Parayko scored on a penalty shot at 7:40 to make it 4-0.
"I don't think I've had a penalty shot in a game before," Parayko said. "I like going for that move in practice, I guess I just stuck to my guns there. I was kind of in between what I was going to do. I didn't really think about the speed, it was just me and the goalie."

St. Louis made it 5-0 at 9:31 after Robert Thomas found Jordan Kyrou alone in the slot and he scored with a backhand after getting Daccord down.
NOTES: Parayko is the first Blues defenseman to score on a penalty shot and the 34th in NHL history. … Husso defeated the Kraken on Jan. 13, making 31 saves in a 2-1 Blues win.