In Seattle, Mikko Rantanen scored a double in the third period, wrapped around Nathan MacKinnon’s second of the night to break open a 3-3 tie with the Kraken on Saturday en route to a 6-4 win in Game 3.
“He (MacKinnon) was the difference-maker that we’ve come to expect in big games, in must-win games, in critical games, regular season and playoffs,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “(He) played with great speed, great competitiveness, physical, and then when he got the puck, he was really tough to check.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves in the win.
Game 4 is set for Monday in Seattle.
“It was a great atmosphere,” Seattle defenseman Jamie Oleksiak said. “We’ve just got to feed off of that for a full 60.”
The two teams traded goals for the first 40 minutes.
“Momentum swung back and forth,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We weren’t on the right side of that tonight. We gave up two goals pretty quick in the first as well as in the third. Those are tough to overcome when you give up those types of goals quickly like that.”
Seattle took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a strike by Jaden Schwartz, his first of two on the night.
“It was pretty special,” Schwartz said. “We were all looking forward to tonight.”
Colorado rallied with two goals to take a 2-1 lead in the first.
J.T. Compher scored shorthanded to tie it, 1-1, at 16:07, and MacKinnon put the Avs up, 2-1, at 19:15.
“Those are world-class players,” Hakstol said of MacKinnon, Rantanen and Makar. “We gave them too much time and space, a little too easy tonight.”
Cale Makar scored at 4:33 of the middle frame to push the Colorado lead to 3-1.
“It’s mental toughness,” Makar said. “There’s a lot of guys on this team that don’t get affected. They score two quick there, and for us to be able to just kind of settle it down and bounce back, that’s a show of a lot of mature individuals. Hopefully we can continue to do that.”
Seattle scored twice in a 19-second span with Oleksiak trimming the lead to 3-2 at 12:51, and Matty Beniers scoring 19 seconds later to send the game to the third, tied, 3-3.
Schwartz scored his of the game, off the power play, with less than a minute to go in the game for the 6-4 final.
“Those are world-class players,” Hakstol said of MacKinnon, Rantanen and Makar. “We gave them too much time and space, a little too easy tonight.”
Philipp Grubauer made 28 saves in the loss.
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