Evgeny Svechnikov and Logan Couture each had a goal and an assist as the San Jose Sharks earned a rare home victory, defeating the Seattle Kraken 4-0 in a Monday matinee.
Noah Gregor and Michael Eyssimont also scored, Erik Karlsson had two assists and goaltender James Reimer made 26 saves for his second shutout of the season for San Jose, which improved its NHL-worst home record to 6-14-7.
Martin Jones, who played in San Jose from 2015-21, stopped 19 of 23 shots for the Kraken, who had a four-game points streak (3-0-1) snapped and missed a chance to move into a first-place tie with Vegas in the Pacific Division.
Seattle outshot the Sharks 6-5 in a scoreless first period.
Couture opened the scoring at 10:45 of the second off a faceoff with Seattle’s Yanni Gourde, sliding the puck past an unsuspecting Jones.
Svechnikov scored unassisted at 16:08 after picking off a clearing attempt by Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn at the top of the right faceoff circle. Svechnikov skated open alone on net and Jones made the initial save, but Svechnikov was able to chip his own rebound just over the goalie’s right leg pad.
The Sharks made it 3-0 at 19:42 of the second. Svechnikov left a drop pass for Gregor just inside the blue line along the left-wing boards. Gregor skated into the faceoff circle before unleashing a low wrist shot that beat Jones just inside the near post.
Eyssimont capped the scoring at 16:57 of the third, assisted by Couture and Karlsson.
The Sharks’ attack was lacking bite as forwards Timo Meier (upper-body injury) and Tomas Hertl (personal reasons) both sat out. Coach David Quinn said Meier was day-to-day, while he indicated Hertl is expected to return for Thursday’s game against Nashville.
The second meeting of the season between the division rivals was nothing like the first, an 8-5 victory by host Seattle on Nov. 23.
–Field Level Media