Kraken win third straight, down Avs, 3-2

In Seattle, the Kraken scored three goals in the first period on Wednesday to take a 3-0 lead over the Colorado Avalanche.

The Kraken held on for a 3-2 win, their third straight victory. The accomplishment is a first for the franchise.

“Guys are working hard, especially in this building, in front of the fans that have been here through thick and thin for the last six, seven months,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “Because they’re working hard, they’re working together all night tonight. We got off to the start that we needed. To be able to play with the lead is really important against Colorado, and we were able to do that.”

Philipp Grubauer made 25 saves in the Kraken win.

Colorado dropped to 55-16-6,

“Even after we got more competitive and got more desire in our game, I thought we had a lot of guys fighting the puck,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We just didn’t handle it well, we didn’t handle their pressure well, we didn’t execute when we had time, and we certainly didn’t execute when they took our time and space away.”

Kole Lind and Jordan Eberle scored to give the Kraken a 2-0 lead.

“That was a really great way for him to get off to a good start,” Hakstol said. “It was a little bit of a broken play. But for him, it was just building speed and pushing on possession and being able to finish that. A great way for him to be able to start the game, but his two-way game was good, and he played a good, confident game.”

Yanni Gourde pushed the lead out to 3-0 at 14:44 of the first period.

“Honestly, anytime you go up 3-0 early, it’s a bonus,” Eberle said. “At the same time, against these guys, you understand that they have the firepower to build and can easily come back from that. But I thought we did a good job, for the most part, limiting their chances and trying to help [Grubauer] out as much as we could, and when things broke down he was there to make the save. We’ve had storylines like that throughout the year with guys beating their old team. It’s good to see him get that.”

Cale Makar scored for the Avs to make it 3-1 heading into the middle frame.

Colorado got closer in the third period when Artturi Lehkonen scored in the 17th minute of the stanza, but Seattle held on for the win.