Cooley cool under pressure with 49 saves as Sharks top Kraken
SEATTLE -- Devin Cooley is trying not to get wrapped up in the success of his past two starts. It's difficult with how impressive they've been.
Cooley made 49 saves in just his fourth career start, Kyle Burroughs and Fabian Zetterlund scored less than a minute apart in the second period, and the San Jose Sharks beat the Seattle Kraken 3-1 on Thursday night.
The Sharks spoiled Seattle's final home game of the season, taking advantage of two defensive breakdowns by the Kraken just 51 seconds apart and a terrific performance by Cooley.
"It has been amazing. I'm just trying to keep myself grounded and not get too excited. Obviously, this league can humble you pretty quick," Cooley said. "I'm just taking it one day at a time, one save at a time. Really trying to stay in the present moment, not get too excited, not get too happy. But sometimes that's hard, especially the way this month has gone."
Cooley, who made his debut for the Sharks last month, is a Bay Area native and the first California-born goalie to start for San Jose. He made 34 saves in his last start against St. Louis to pick up his first career victory.
He was even better against Seattle.
Cooley already had 33 saves after two periods, turning away flurries of chances by the Kraken around the San Jose net. In the third period, he made terrific stops on Jaden Schwartz on a power play and Adam Larsson with an extra attacker on the ice and two defenders hobbling after blocking shots. Shane Wright also hit the post in the third period.
"Our goalie was outstanding and there's not much more to talk about," San Jose coach David Quinn said.
Burroughs snapped a 1-1 tie with his second goal of the season, finishing William Eklund's pass on an odd-man rush at 14:46 of the second period. Less than a minute later, Seattle's defense lost track of Zetterlund as he flashed in front of the net. His redirection of Mikael Granlund's pass slipped under the arm of Kraken goalie Joey Daccord, who finished with 20 saves. It was Zetterlund's 22nd goal.
Luke Kunin scored in the first period on a redirection of Henry Thurn's shot from the blue line.
Brian Dumoulin set a career-high with his sixth goal of the season midway through the first period, but Seattle otherwise could not solve Cooley. Every Seattle player had at least one shot on goal and the Kraken had more shots through two periods than 60 other games this season.
Seattle's 50 shots were a franchise record.
"We had a lot of zone time. Obviously their goalie played really well. There were pucks there, there were tips," Schwartz said. "We made a couple of mistakes there in the second and were down 3-1 and then we were chasing a little bit."
Seattle finished 17-18-6 at home, but it was a disappointing conclusion to the home schedule and the Kraken failed to capitalize on the success of last season when they made the second round of the playoffs in their second year of existence.
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Sharks: San Jose will host Minnesota on Saturday night.