In Seattle, Pavel Francouz made 26 saves, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Kraken, 2-1, on penalties on Saturday night.
“Hard checking both ways,” Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen said. “Both ‘D’ were defending well, not a lot of chances out there, and that’s pretty much what playoff games look like. Came through even though it was a second game with a back to back, so really big one.”
The won their fifth straight and improved to 25-17-3.
Alex Newhook struck for a goal in the second period to give the Avs a 1-0 lead.
“It was a good hockey game. I mean, first in the Pacific, Seattle is playing really well,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We’ve been playing really well lately. I like the way we played tonight. Effort wise, we did a lot of good things on a back to back. I’m pretty proud of our guys coming in here facing a tough team and fighting it out to the bitter end. An evenly matched game, obviously. Fitting that it goes to a shootout. I thought both goalies were really good.”
Ryan Donato tied the game, 1-1, in the second period.
“It was a battle. We were in a battle for 65-plus minutes with the shootout,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Obviously, it’s disappointing when you don’t win in the shootout and get the extra point. In terms of our effort, our work level with battle was good throughout the hockey game. You’d like to be able to execute a little better in a couple of situations, but hey, it was that type of hockey game all the way through.”
Seattle dropped to 27-14-5.
Nathan MacKinnon had the deciding goal in the skills competition.
“It was a fun game, fun game to be part of,” Rantanen said. “Physical game, you know, not a lot of room out there, so have to give it to them. They’re a really, really good team. We haven’t seen them in 40 games or so. They’re playing good hockey.”
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Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves in the loss.
“I think those games are fun to play in,” Grubauer said. “They did a really good job in their [defensive] zone shutting us down, and so did we. Just a battle all over the ice. One mistake, and it could have gone the other way.”
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