Avalanche rally to defeat Kraken in Game 2, even Western 1st Round

DENVER --Devon Toews broke a tie in the third period, and the Colorado Avalanche rallied for a 3-2 win against the Seattle Kraken in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round at Ball Arena on Thursday.

Toews capped a three-goal comeback when he charged a rebound that went off goalie Philipp Grubauer's leg and scored on a wrist shot from the right face-off circle to give Colorado a 3-2 lead at 12:59.
"We got a lead. Now we've got to defend it," Toews said of the mindset after the goal. "It's been tough to come by a little bit for us in the first two games, and that second half of that game, you'd seen in some of the goals we scored just some of that frustration coming out and excitement coming out."

The best-of-7 series is tied. Game 3 will be in Seattle on Saturday.
Toews and Artturi Lehkonen each had a goal and an assist, and Alexandar Georgiev made 27 saves for the Avalanche, the top seed in the Central Division.
"First period was terrible, OK? I thought that after going through Game 1 that we would be sharp and really on it in the first," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "I thought we were tight. We played tight. No one wanted the puck. No one wanted to skate with the puck. We saw parts of that in Game 1, so to me that was the worst period we've played in the series so far.
"We knew we hadn't played our best hockey at all or anywhere even close in the first 20]*
Schultz gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 2:40 of the first period, skating into an Eeli Tolvanen cross from the right boards and scoring five-hole from the slot.
Tanev scored short-handed to make it 2-0 at 13:27 when Gourde poked a pass to him as he entered the zone and he shot over Georgiev's glove.
"Everything goes to Yanni there," Tanev said. "He worked his butt off to get that puck out in the slot, and I was fortunate enough to have some time and space. When you get a shot off, you hope it goes in, and that was the case there."

Lehkonen cut it to 2-1 at 6:42 of the second period on a deflection of Cale Makar point shot from between the circles.
"Of course it feels good to score, especially to get the first one out of the way," Lehkonen said. "I felt like in the second period, we came out well."
Valeri Nichushkin tied it 2-2 just 48 seconds later, Evan Rodrigues fed him a pass behind two defenders, and he deked Grubauer before backhanding the puck between the goalie's leg and the right post at 7:30.
"The goals obviously helped, but I think we just simplified," Rodrigues said. "I think we were pressing a little bit, and once we got that first one, we kind of took a deep breath, got the second one quickly, and after that just kept rolling. [We] fed off the crowd and started to play a lot more simple."
Gourde said, "Obviously, going up 2-0 against that group over there, it's good. It's really good. We're in a great spot after the first period. We knew they were going to push, but for part of that second period we didn't really have a response. We've just got to manage the game a little bit better, know what to do, slow the game down a little bit and go back to our roots [and] what works for us. When we do that, we're a pretty successful group."

NOTES: Makar got his 46th playoff assist to tie Bobby Orr for the second-most in NHL history by a defenseman age 24 or younger (Paul Coffey, 59). … Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon had his 11-game home point streak in the playoffs end (17 points; eight goals, nine assists). … Avalanche forward Darren Helm was minus-1 with one shot in 8:15 after missing Game 1 and the final seven regular-season games with a lower-body injury. ... Rodrigues was plus-3 in 16:44.