Avalanche Fall 3-2 to Kraken

The Colorado Avalanche fell 3-2 to the Seattle Kraken on Friday night at Ball Arena. The Avalanche are now 2-2-1 on the season.

Evan Rodrigues scored his first goal of the season and his first goal as a member of the Avalanche, while Bowen Byram (1G, 1A) scored a shorthanded goal. Valeri Nichushkin handed out two assists. Pavel Francouz made 35 saves on 38 shots. The Avalanche were outshot 38-20 by Seattle.
For Seattle, Jaden Schwartz (1G, 1A) scored a power-play goal, while Jared McCann (1G, 1A) and Karson Kuhlman added even-strength strikes, with Kuhlman netting the game winner. Former Avalanche netminder Philipp Grubauer started the game and made 17 saves on 19 shots through 50:17 minutes. Martin Jones made one save as he took over in Seattle's net for the final 9:43 minutes of regulation.

GAME SUMMARY:

The Avalanche and Kraken remained scoreless following the first period. Despite the flare 0-0 score, the first period featured plenty of high-paced end-to-end action between teams. Seattle took an 11-8 shot advantage. The Avalanche killed off an Andrew Cogliano hooking penalty at 11:09 with some timely stops by Francouz. Towards the end of the frame, a heavy-weight tilt between Colorado defenseman Kurtis MacDermid - who took Devon Toews' place in the lineup as he's out with "soreness" per Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar - and Seattle d-man Jamie Oleksiak resulting in matching five-minute fighting penalties.
Seattle took a quick 2-0 lead to start the second period with their two strikes coming in the span of 22 seconds and in the first two minutes of play.
The Kraken scored the game's icebreaker at 1:38 on the power play after Avalanche winger Alex Newhook was assessed with holding. On Seattle's power play, they executed a quick passing sequence where McCann fed Jordan Eberle below the hash marks and Eberle redirected his pass to the slot for Schwartz. From the low slot, Schwartz slipped his shot just under Francouz's left arm which marked the fifth-straight game Colorado has allowed a power-play goal against.
On the next shift after the center faceoff, the Kraken doubled their lead. Francouz had rimmed a pass around the boards, but the Seattle defenseman drilled the shot back on net. Francouz made an acrobatic kick save to the backdoor, but McCann dove in and jammed the puck across the goal line at 2:00 for Seattle's second strike.

Down 2-0, the Avalanche ushered a quick response. Following a clean zone breakout, Colorado countered up ice and Bowen Byram sent a feed down to Valeri Nichushkin near the lower inside of the left faceoff circle. Nichushkin slipped the puck to the backdoor to Evan Rodrigues. With Grubauer sprawled out in the crease, Rodrigues lofted his shot into the open net for his first goal as a member of the Avalanche and to trim Colorado's deficit down 2-1 at 5:55.
The Avalanche had two more chances on the power play in the middle frame, but failed to convert on both, as they trailed Seattle 2-1 heading into the final 20 minutes of play and had to carry over 1:15 of time on the penalty kill as Byram took an interference penalty at 19:15.

Colorado tied the game up 2-2 at 6:58 with a clutch shorthanded goal from Byram. Nathan MacKinnon had taken a hooking penalty at 5:57. Following a sequence of timely stops by Francouz, the Avalanche penalty kill charged up the ice with an odd-man rush in their favor. Nichushkin carried the puck and instead of playing it to Logan O'Connor across the slot, he dropped it back to Byram who joined the rush. Byram fired a high one timer past Grubauer for the equalizer.
Despite a strong push by the Avalanche and some big stops from Francouz, the Kraken took a 3-2 lead at 12:05. After Jaden Schwartz chipped the puck up the ice, Kuhlman outpaced MacDermid and poked the puck past Francouz for the go-ahead goal.
The Avalanche were unable to secure an equalizer to send the game into overtime and suffered their second regulation loss of the season.

NOTEWORTHY:

• Evan Rodrigues scored his first goal of the season and his first goal as a member of the Avalanche.
• Byram scored his second goal of the season and recorded an assist.
• With two assists, Nichushkin extended his point streak to five games where he has totaled 10 points (5G, 5A).
• Dryden Hunt, who the Avalanche claimed on waivers from the New York Rangers on Thursday, made his debut for Colorado. Hunt skated alongside Jayson Megna and Logan O'Connor and totaled 4:27 minutes and threw two hits.
• Former Avalanche winger and member of the 2022 Stanley Cup Championship roster, Andre Burakovsky played against Colorado for the first time since signing with the Kraken as a unrestricted free agent in the offseason. Ahead of morning skate, Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog hand delivered Burakovsky's Stanley Cup ring to him.
• Colorado finished the game 0-for-2 on the power play and 1-for-5 on the penalty kill.
• The Avalanche have allowed a power-play goal in all five games this season
• Byram's shorthanded goal marked the second time this season that the Avalanche's penalty kill has found the back of the net.
• Devon Toews, Jacob MacDonald were scratches for Colorado.

NEXT GAME:

The Avalanche travel to Vegas to complete their back-to-back set as they take on the Golden Knights at 8 p.m. MT on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.