Kraken lose fourth straight in 6-3 defeat to Avalanche

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DENVER, COLORADO - NOVEMBER 5: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche and Brandon Montour #62 of the Seattle Kraken race after the puck in the second period at Ball Arena on November 5, 2024 in Denver, Colorado. (Tyler Schank / Clarkson Creative / Getty Images)

Nathan MacKinnon had five assists, Mikko Rantanen scored twice, and the Seattle Kraken yielded three power play goals to the Colorado Avalanche as they lost their fourth straight game, 6-3, on Tuesday night.

The Kraken had five penalties on the night, which gave way too many chances to Colorado's dangerous power play unit.

Jared McCann scored in his 600th career NHL game, and Matty Beniers scored on his 22nd birthday for Seattle, who had been shut out in each of their last two losses to Ottawa and Boston.

Head coach Dan Bylsma shuffled the lineup looking for a spark with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Tye Kartye scratched in favor of John Hayden and Ryan Winterton. However, the line of Eeli Tolvanen, Shane Wright and Winterton ended up being a minus-3 on the night as they were cut up by Colorado's offense.

The Avalanche jumped out to an early 1-0 lead against that very line as Nathan MacKinnon made a terrific move to slip by Tolvanen at the blue line and find Chris Wagner for his first goal of the season.

Seattle’s 5-on-5 goal drought of over 220 minutes of game time dating back to their 8-2 win over Montreal a week ago finally came to an end 10 minutes later. Matty Beniers found Jaden Schwartz at the back post for a redirection goal behind Justus Annunen to tie the game at 1-1.

Colorado regained the lead less than 90 seconds later as Tolvanen collided with goaltender Philipp Grubauer, which left a wide open net for Ivan Ivan.

A penalty to Casey Mittlestadt for holding gave Seattle a power play to open the second period. In his 600th NHL game, Jared McCann converted to tie the game again at 2-2. Chandler Stephenson pressured Logan O’Connor into a turnover and found McCann open in front of the net for his sixth goal of the year.

But Seattle couldn’t stay out of the penalty box themselves, and against Colorado’s dangerous power play unit, it proved costly. With Shane Wright in the box for tripping Mikko Rantanen, Artturi Lehkonen – playing his first game of the season – had his shot slip through Grubauer for a 3-2 Avalanche lead.

A wild sequence soon followed with Stephenson in the box for a slashing penalty. Rantanen scored a second power play goal for the Avalanche as the lead doubled to 4-2. But Seattle’s replay review team of Tim Ohashi and Brady Morgan seemingly delivered again in getting a goal taken off the board. Artturi Lehkonen was in an offside position when he gained possession of the puck and the whole play was initially wiped out with the score returning to 3-2.

However, the Avalanche argued that the puck came off a Kraken stick and therefore the play wasn’t offsides. Yanni Gourde’s shot on net on the opposite end of the ice missed the goal entirely and rimmed around the boards all the way back into Seattle’s zone to Lehkonen. So after a secondary review, the goal was restored with the Kraken challenge deemed unsuccessful.

The Kraken did get within one as Matty Beniers scored with 2:29 left to play with an extra attacker on the ice. Beniers tipped a Brandon Montour shot by Annunen to give Seattle a chance in the closing minutes.

However, the Avalanche quickly restored the two-goal lead with an empty net goal by Rantanen for a 5-3 Colorado lead.

Nikolai Kovalenko added a late power play goal with two seconds left to make it a 6-3 final score.

The Kraken managed just 20 shots on net against Annunen.

Grubauer allowed five goals on 31 shots, though he was 16-of-18 at even strength.