In Denver, the Seattle Kraken avoided the dreaded two-goal gag on Friday night. The Kraken took a 2-0 lad in their game with the Colorado Avalanche and then held off the Avs for a 3-2 win.
Colorado did rally to tie the game, 2-2, but Karson Kuhlman hit for the game-winner in the third period to rescue the Kraken from a fate that has befallen most of the NHL this season.
“I think it starts with a good wall play there,” Kuhlman said. “[Jaden Schwartz] makes a good play, putting the puck into space, lets me skate into it. He was kind of draped on me there. I usually like to get that puck to the far post, kind of beat the goalie over there, but saw a little opening and was able to put it in the net.”
Phillip Grubauer got the start for Seattle and made 17 saves before laving the match midway through the third period with an apparent injury.
“He [said something didn’t feel right] right after the goal, and then obviously the next whistle he went down the tunnel,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “I don’t have [an update] for you right now.”
Martin Jones made one save in his place.
“We played a rock solid 60 minutes,” Hakstol said. “We were confident from the drop of the puck. We knew they’d have a little push in their home building, and they did in the first couple of shifts, but we settled things down. We played a real good 60 minutes.”
Evan Rodrigues had a goal in the second period for the Avs, his strike cut the Seattle lead to 2-1.
Jaden Schwartz and Jared McCann gave the Kraken a 2-0 lead in the middle frame.
“He’s an aggressive goalie (Colorado’s Pavel Francouz), so I thought he was going to come out a little bit more and I was just going to float it into the top corner there,” McCann said. “But he stayed kind of back into his net and made a great read.”
Schwartz scored off the power play, Seattle was 1-for-5 with the extra skater.
“Sloppy. Poor execution really the whole night,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “That’s why we didn’t get any shots. Tough to get shots when you can’t execute. … Sloppy. Spent the whole night defending.”
Bowen Byram scored in the third period for Colorado to tie the game, and erase the two-goal deficit.
“I did get to score a goal, but at the end of the day, we’re just not playing good enough to win right now,” Byram said. “There’s a lot more that goes into the game than scoring. I feel like I didn’t have my best game, so I’m not too worried about that right now.”
Francouz made 35 saves in the Colorado loss.
“It’s not the result we wanted, but good to get that one out of the way and hopefully they can start piling [up] now,” Rodrigues said.
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