Avalanche Even Series with Statement 'Swagger' Game 2 Win Over Kraken

Now, it's a series.
The Colorado Avalanche got back to their "swagger" as they executed a resilient, statement 3-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken in Game 2 of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Thursday night at Ball Arena. The best-of-seven series is now tied 1-1.

For the Avalanche the team rallied from a 2-0 deficit with three unanswered strikes to even the series up 1-1. Devon Toews netted the game winner, while Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin also scored. In net, Alexandar Georgiev turned aside 27 of the 29 shots he faced as he earned his first-career playoff win.
For the Kraken, Justin Schultz scored at even strength, while Brandon Tanev added a shorthanded strike. In between the pipes, former Avalanche netminder Philipp Grubauer made 38 saves on 41 shots.

GAME SUMMARY:

After suffering a 3-1 uncharacteristic effort in Game 1, where the Avalanche were smothered by the Kraken, the team entered Game 2 noting that they would be better.
But it wasn't immediate.
Despite preaching the importance of taking on Game 2 with more energy and urgency, the Avalanche fell into a 2-0 hole after the first period, which Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar called, "terrible" and the team's "worst period of the series". The Kraken continued their theme of drawing a quick strike in the opening minute of play and went on to also add a shorthanded goal a little over the midway mark of the period.
Seattle produced the game's icebreaker at 2:40 off a quick transition play. From the Kraken defensive zone, Gourde sent a pass along the boards up ice for Eeli Tolvanen, who carried the puck into the left faceoff circle. From inside the circle, Tolvanen snapped a horizontal backhanded pass into the slot, where Schutlz skated onto it and fired it past Georgiev.
After killing off a Josh Manson roughing penalty at 8:56, the Avalanche received their first power play of the night at 12:15. After occupying some offensive zone time, Colorado's power play took an unfortunate turn as the Kraken cleared the puck. Gourde showcased his speed and chased the puck down and won the wall battle as MacKinnon and Makar pressured him in the corner. Gourde then sent the puck into the slot, where Tanev picked it up and then fired his shot over Georgiev's glove side to double the Kraken's lead at 13:27.
The Avalanche had another power play opportunity at 14:45 (Jordan Eberle for slashing), but did not convert.
Despite falling into a 2-0 deficit, Colorado flipped a switch in the second period - scoring two goals in the span of 48 seconds. The team - as Bowen Byram noted, "got their swagger back" as they elevated their effort and asserted themselves as the aggressors with their electric, high-flying offense, tenacious checking. Shift-after-shift they came in waves at Seattle and in doing so, tied the score up 2-2 and outshot the Kraken 16-12- backed by some exceptional goaltending from Georgiev.
"We played tight [in the first period]," Bednar said. "No one wanted the puck, no one wanted to skate with it in the pocket… That was a message [in the first intermission] that we had to build our swagger back, shift-by-shift, that we have to get more assertive and more engaged competitively. I think [Seattle] held the competitive advantage for the first four periods of the series and I felt like we had another level that we needed to get to that they were already at. In the second period, you could see we started free ourselves up a little bit. Now, you get guys fighting through checks and being more assertive, more engaged. We really started to see what our team could do once we scored the first goal. Then we played and it was still hard-fought for the next 40 minutes."
As the Avalanche chipped away in the second period, they dictated the puck and pulse of the play as the period ensued and as they pressed with shift-after-shift, their pressure broke with two lethal strikes. Byram sent a d-to-d feed to Makar, who walked the blueline and fired one of his signature shots on net. At the netfront, Lehkonen redirected the point shot past Grubauer to trim Colorado's deficit down 2-1 at 6:42.

The atmosphere at Ball Arena immediately erupted as an avalanche of white pom-poms thrashed in the air and the crowd roared.
As the puck dropped at center ice, the Avalanche came in yet another wave. From the defensive zone, Toews sent a sharp feed off the wall and into the offensive zone where it met the stick of Rodrigues. The winger split Seattle's defense as he sent a pass between them in the slot to Nichushkin. At the net front, the Russian winger toe-dragged and slipped a backhander past Grubauer at 7:30 for the 2-2 equalizer.

A few minutes later, Rodrigues had a chance in-tight but struck the crossbar. The Avalanche continued to smother Seattle, but at 14:50 their momentum was halted as MacKinnon was sent to the box for high-sticking. Colorado's penalty kill came through with a desperate, but incredible effort to hold off the Kraken's power play, including some big saves from Georgiev and a clutch block from Erik Johnson as the penalty was near expiration.
The intensity between teams continued to boil over as the period wore on. With two minutes left in the period and after a Seattle chance, Makar and Tanev were both sent to the box for roughing -- as Makar's helmet was ripped off. As the period concluded with four-on-four hockey, Georgiev made a highlight-reel save to keep the score 2-2 headed into the final 20 minutes of play.
The Kraken had countered with a 3-on-1 rush and as they passed it to Jordan Eberle at the backdoor, Georgiev made an extraordinary pad save to hold him off.

The third period featured end-to-end action as both teams tightly checked and exchanged Grade A chances, but the 2-2 stalemate resumed as both netminders were dialed in.
Colorado finally broke through as the team scored off an offensive zone faceoff win late in the period. MacKinnon won the draw in the left faceoff circle and the puck popped out to Girard at the blueline, where he sent a pass in between the circles to Lehkonen. The Finnish winger turned and fired a one-timer at Grubauer, but he came up with the pad stop. The rebound kicked out to the right faceoff circle where Toews snatched the puck, skated and wired a low shot to the far side of Grubauer to give Colorado a 3-2 lead and the team's first lead of the series.

The Avalanche held on in the final few minutes - despite another sequence of four-on-four hockey at 16:42 - but Colorado held off the Kraken and evened the series 1-1.
"That's something that we're trying to build towards," Byram said of playing their game. "We finally broke through there and got some confidence and started playing with some swagger… I don't know many teams that can beat us [when we play like that]. We just had to go out there and prove it and we did that. Now, it's just about putting our best foot forward on Saturday night [in Game 3]."

LINEUP CHANGES PAY OFF:

The Avalanche had also made some internal adjustments to the layout of their lineup as they approached Game 2, which paid off. Bednar separated Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen from being on a line together as he assembled MacKinnon with Evan Rodrigues and Lehkonen and placed Rantanen alongside J.T. Compher and Valeri Nichushkin. Bednar also split up Cale Makar and Devon Toews on the blueline and instead paired Makar with Bowen Byram and slotted Toews alongside Samuel Girard. Darren Helm also returned to the lineup after being sidelined with a lower-body injury since April 1 and "didn't miss a beat," according to Bednar.
"Girard and [Toews] had just played together for 10 games with [Makar] out, and they were outstanding," Bednar said. "Girard had a spike in all of his analytic numbers. He was making a bigger impact than he had at other times during the year. And [Toews] did a nice job on the right side so that it makes sense to put them together and then [Byram and Makar] together to help create offense."

NOTEWORTHY:

• Lehkonen, Nichushkin and Toews scored their respective first goals of the postseason. Lehkonen buried his 15th career-playoff goal, white Nichushkin scored his 14th career-playoff goal. Toews furthered his postseason goal total to 10.
• Helm returned to the lineup for the first time since April 1.
• The Avalanche were without Andrew Cogliano, who missed Game 1 after sustaining an upper-body injury against Winnipeg in Game 81 of the regular season.
• Ben Meyers and Denis Malgin made their Stanley Cup Playoffs debuts.
• Georgiev earned his first-career playoff win, while his postseason record improved his record to 1-2-0.
• Colorado finished the game 0-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
• Kurtis MacDermid, Ben Meyers, Brad Hunt, Jack Johnson (lower body), Cogliano (upper body), and Keith Kinkaid were scratches for the Avalanche. Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog - who missed the entire regular season - will not play in the playoffs due to a knee injury.

NEXT GAME:

The First Round series between Colorado and Seattle shifts to Seattle with Game 3 on Saturday night. The puck drops between the Avalanche and Kraken at 8:00 p.m. MT.