Kraken boil Avs with late goal

In Denver, the Seattle Kraken’s Oliver Bjorkstrand hot for a double on Thursday night, his second coming with 32 seconds left in regulation to give them a 4-3 win over the Avalanche.

“I honestly barely remember it. I tried to get it on net,” Bjorkstrand said. “’Tolvy’ (Eeli Tolvanen ) had a chance. I just got a little bit of a greasy one there.”

Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves in the win.

“I liked all the parts of the game. This is a tough building to win in,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s always going to be some ebbs and flows in the hockey game, some different momentum swings, but ultimately we showed great resilience at the end of the game and found the game-winner. It’s a great win.”

Seattle improved to 5-6-3.

Jaden Schwartz staked the Kraken to a 1-0 lead with 1:21 left in the opening frame.

Bjorkstrand scored his first on the night at 4:29 of the middle frame for a 2-0 advantage.

Just 28 seconds later, Bowen Byram scored for the Avs to trim the deficit to 2-1.

“I thought as a whole, that’s the way I want our team to compete,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We played hard. We weren’t perfect — never going to be, but thought we did a nice job.

“I thought our guys worked extremely hard and it didn’t come easy for us, but I think this is the National Hockey League. You have to expect to have to play exceptional, execution has to be exceptional, and your effort has to be exceptional in order to win. That’s the way it should be. That’s what makes winning so fun.”

Seattle pushed the lead back to two, 3-1, with a power play marker from Matty Beniers at 11:35 of the seconf.

“I think I’ve had those chances in games past and sometimes they just don’t go in. I was fortunate to get one in tonight,” Beniers said. “Felt good. Felt great.”

The Avs dropped to 8-4-0.

Colorado clawed back to within on, 3-2, on a strike from Nathan MacKinnon at 15:40.

“I felt like we deserved a better outcome, to be honest with you,” the Avs’ Cale Makar said. “I think we battled a lot of elements tonight, guys going down, and I felt like our work ethic was top-notch. “So compete-wise, I think we played to the best of our ability, it’s just some games it’s not going to go your way, and tonight was one of those. But overall, I don’t think today is something that we can hang our head on.”

The Avs tied it up, 3-3, on a third period goal from Valeri Nichushkin at 12:15.