In Seattle, the visiting Colorado Avalanche bounced back after a dismal 8-3 loss to the St Louis Blues over the weekend, with a 5-1 win over the Kraken on Monday.
Alexandar Georgiev made 18 saves in the win.
“You try to build your confidence in any way now, and I made some good saves,” Georgiev said. “I tried to feel good about that. I’m enjoying the type of game and the guys took care of the results.”
The Avs improved to 9-5-0.
“I thought we kept it simple,” the Avs’ Jonathan Drouin said. “We got shots at the net, traffic there, and it just kind of rolled on them for [the last] two periods.”
Brandon Tanev was the lone striker for Seattle, his first period goal staked the Kraken to a 1-0 lead.
“There were stretches of good hockey from our group,” Tanev said. “Then there were times when we were not in the game and giving them too much time and space. When you give great players too much time and space, you make it look easy for them.”
Seattle dropped to 5-8-3.
“Our effort was, out of the gates, very good,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We worked. Our pace was pretty good through most of the first 40 minutes.”
In the middle frame, Mikko Rantanen scored at 12:05 to knot the game at 1-1.
Two minutes later, Ross Colton put the Avs up, 2-1 off a power play strike.
“I thought [Makar] had a good night tonight,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I mean, it’s never easy coming in here. It’s a good team, they can check you hard. Now it’s not the first time back, he’s kind of getting used to the boos [from the crowd] and everything. And I mean, this is a team now that we know really well.”
In the third stanza, Cale Makar scored at 4:41 to add insurance to the Avs’ efforts to make it 3-1.
“As a coach, you want them all to get rewarded for their hard work,” Bednar said. “One way to get rewarded is me giving them more ice time, but the production is what they’re looking for and what you need in order to win hockey games.”
Drouin scored near the midway point of the third to give Colorado a 4-1 advantage.
Valeri Nichushkin hit off the power play for the Avs at 16:43 for the 5-1 final.
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