Avalanche extend series with 4-1 victory over Kraken in Game 6
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - APRIL 28: Artturi Lehkonen #62 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates his goal against the Seattle Kraken during the second period in Game Six of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Climate Pledge Arena on April 28
SEATTLE - Mikko Rantanen scored his sixth goal of the series and Artturi Lehkonen scored a pair of goals as the Colorado Avalanche avoided elimination with a 4-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken to force a winner-take-all Game 7 in Denver on Sunday.
The defending Stanley Cup champions rose to the occasion with their backs of the wall and played their best game of the series to thwart the Kraken's bid to advance with a Game 6 victory at Climate Pledge Arena.
Philipp Grubauer made 35 saves on the night on 38 shots with some massive stops that helped keep the Kraken within reach of a late rally. However, Seattle's offense struggled to generate quality chances and the Avalanche forced the Kraken into too many giveaways. The Avalanche held Seattle to a series-low 23 shots on goal.
"I know what our team is. I know where we're at. I know what our belief is. And we'll be ready to go," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "It's a seven-game series, right? They deserve tonight. They deserve tonight's win. They played well. They were a little bit better than we were. We couldn't push our way back into the game."
The Avalanche appeared to score first for their first time in the series with 5:29 left in the opening period. Bowen Byrum ripped a wrist shot through traffic from the left circle over the glove shoulder of Grubauer to seemingly give Colorado a 1-0 lead.
However, the Kraken challenged the play for offsides. Video replaced showed that as Evan Rodrigues crossed the blue line through a check of Alex Wennberg that the puck had fallen behind Rodrigues' control. Rodrigues was deemed offsides and the goal was taken off the board.
Less than two minutes later the Kraken made it six straight games in the series with the opening goal for Seattle.
A takeaway by Jordan Eberle in neutral ice led to a soft shot on goal from Tye Kartye. However, the rebound led to a bad clearance attempt by Erik Johnson bounced off the side boards into a slap shot from Vince Dunn that snuck through the blocker side of Alexandar Georgiev for a 1-0 lead.
With Dunn's goal, the Kraken became the first team in NHL history to score first in each of their first six playoff games. Dunn is also the 14th different goalscorer for Seattle in the series, which is the most of any team in the playoffs.
The Avalanche would even the score right before the end of the period. Nathan MacKinnon drew multiple defenders into the corner before passing to Devon Toews for a slap shot. Grubauer made the save on Toews' shot, but Rodrigues' got a touch on the puck to find Mikko Rantanen on the door step for an easy finish.
The Kraken missed a couple chances to clear the puck out of their own zone only to have MacKinnon put on a Herculean effort to maintain control in the corner from his stomach. Being unable to get the clear, the puck found its way to Johnson inside the blue line with a shot that deflected off the stick of Eeli Tolvanen and sailed by Grubauer for a 2-1 lead.
Rantanen caught a post on a power play chance after Matty Beniers was sent to the penalty box for just the second time in his career for a trip of J.T. Compher.
Seattle got a shortened power play of just 1:10 coming out of Beniers' penalty as Lehkonen was called for a slashing penalty as he ranked Grubauer's stick out of his hands. Jaden Schwartz had one of the Kraken's best looks of the period off an Eberle feed that was stopped by Georgiev. It was one of just four shots in the period for the Kraken.
"We kept trying to find a spark and we couldn't," Eberle said. "I thought we were just playing a little bit too timid and we got a team who's obviously on the brink, you know, they're gonna play with a lot of desperation and we knew we were going to get their best."
Lehkonen then added to the Colorado lead as he deflected a slap pass from Toews past Grubauer to make it a 3-1 Avalanche lead with 3:03 left in the period.
"That's a team with a lot of high-end skill and they make a lot of plays. So coming out flat and on our heels in the second, they're going to make you pay," Dunn said.
Seattle gave the Avalanche three power plays in the second period but managed to escape unscathed on the penalty kill. However, it took perhaps the save of the series from Grubauer to keep it that was as he denied Compher with a toe save for a desperation stop. Eberle had been sent to the penalty box for an ugly boarding penalty on Cogliano that left him writhing on the ice and Colorado incensed that he was only assessed a two-minute minor.
"Fantastic," Dunn said of Grubauer. "He's been great all series and it's an unfortunate loss for us because he definitely made the saves he needed to to keep us in it."
The Avalanche ended up with five power play chances on the night, And while they didn't score with the man advantage, it kept Seattle backed up and limited offensive chances.
"It wears you down, right?" Hakstol said. "Not only does it take you off of your game, we have no opportunity to generate any momentum five-on-five. You expend a lot of energy, you know. Their power play had a lot of possession tonight, their retrievals were good. So that takes a lot of energy. And like I said, it absolutely takes you out of any rhythm in order to be able to turn momentum around."
The Kraken have managed to keep Colorado's power play from doing damage in the series. Seattle has killed off 15 of 16 penalties through six games and their 94.1 percent penalty kill percentage is second to only the 94.4 percent of the Carolina Hurricanes. The Avalanche were the sixth-most potent power play unit during the regular season.
The Kraken got a power play chance early in the third period on a holding penalty from Alex Newhook. But outside of one good look from Yanni Gourde, they generated very little attacking pressure.
Seattle pulled Grubauer with 1:57 left to play. Oliver Bjorkstrand got a great look in close with around 90 seconds remaining. However, the Kraken were unable to dent the Colorado lead and Lehkonen added an empty net tally late to send the game to a deciding Game 7.
Georgiev finished with 22 saves for Colorado. Cale Makar had a pair of assists for the Avalanche as well in his return to the lineup after a one-game suspension in Game 5 for a hit that injured Seattle's Jared McCann.
The winner of the series will face the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference semifinals. Dallas beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1 in Game 6 of that series to advance earlier on Friday night.
"It's a new opportunity for this group," Eberle said. "I think we've been a good road team all year. It's been a strength of this team. So, you know, we have nothing to lose. So, I mean, go out there and give it our best effort."
Game 7 is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. PT start time on Sunday night.