Smith stays hot, the Sharks hold off Kraken and narrowly win

Cody Ceci made it 3-0 at 8:59 of the second minute, knocking a rebound from Macklin Celebrini off the front wall and sending it over Daccord’s left mat.

“It was a good play by (Walman) to stay in on the blue line. It was kind of a questionable puck,” Ceci said. “I was ready to run backwards and then when I saw him do it, I just went downhill toward the net and got a good rebound off the end wall.”

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

Schwartz made it 4-1 at 10:17 by finding a free puck in the left circle and firing 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 past the left post and behind Blackwood.

“It’s very average again for us,” McCann said of Seattle’s performance. “I think we made them look pretty good. I think we did this to ourselves and we just have to get better.”

Matty Beniers appeared to score with 7.6 seconds left in the third period to make it 4-3, hitting a puck from the bottom of the left circle past Blackwood’s glove, but video review confirmed that the goaltender interfered had.

“On opening night we had a 4-1 lead that we let slip,” Warsofsky said. “And tonight we got to third period and I thought it was one of our better evenings. That’s how we learned how to play properly.”

NOTES: The Sharks scored 12 goals in back-to-back games against the Kraken, the most in a two-game span since they scored the same number from February 27 to March 1, 2021. … Vince Dunn returned to the Seattle 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 had a plus-1 in 26:15 minutes of ice time.