Kraken plow through Avalanche in game seven to take series over defending champs
By Charles Hamaker
Denver, CO – Towards the end of their inaugural season, April 20th, 2022, to be exact, the Seattle Kraken defeated a Colorado Avalanche team that was on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. While Colorado was without a few key names (Landeskog, Rantanen, Toews), the Avalanche were a strong team headed towards greatness while Seattle was trying to end their “disappointing” inaugural season with some fun takeaways. The Kraken pulled out a tight victory inside of a packed Climate Pledge Arena, and when the final horn sounded, goaltender Philipp Grubauer emphatically pumped his fist in celebration. Perhaps it foreshadowed this series and tonight’s game seven, taking place around the same time and in nearly similar fashion. This game also ended with the Kraken grinding the puck along their defensive zone boards to kill the clock, and Grubauer celebrated once again as he guided Seattle to their first ever Stanley Cup Playoff series victory. Instead of a fist pump, The German Gentleman jumped into the air with joy to celebrate a massive feat after year one saw him receive heavy criticism.
Getting out on the front foot
All series long, the Kraken were able to find the back of the net first to get the game going. That was due in large part to the team's waves of offensive pressure thanks to their forward depth as well as their forecheck that had been solid outside of game six and other parts where it became noticeable that it was lacking. The trend of quick starts waited a period to continue, as the opening frame saw Seattle cling on to the jersey of Philipp Grubauer (metaphorically, of course) since the Avalanche came out with a heavy attack. The Kraken offensive presence seemed to arrive late to the arena, but thankfully found its way onto the ice for the second period. Heading into the first intermission and factoring in game six, you could’ve come to the conclusion that the Avalanche were going to overwhelm the Kraken and that this series was all but theirs. Seattle, once again, remained resilient and reminded Colorado that they were here for a reason.
18 ticks under four minutes into the middle frame, Kraken forward Oliver Bjorkstrand was able to show his hand at being a pin-ball wizard, as he spun away from two Avalanche defenders to fling the puck back-hand towards the net. Colorado’s Alex Newhook attempted to block the puck as Seattle forward Brandon Tanev awaited it in the high danger area, but Newhook’s efforts redirected it to hit his teammate Ben Meyers who had also crashed to the crease to deal with Tanev. Meyers, surprised by the puck hitting him in the chest, seemingly tried to fling it off himself like a fly had landed on him, sending the rubber circle towards net and past goaltender Alexandar Georgiev who hasn’t prepared. A bang-bang play, or a greasy goal if you will, had gotten Seattle on the board. They don’t ask how, after all.
“I don’t know. Obviously exciting to play those games and you want to give it your best and obviously, I don’t know, I feel like I’ve just kind of been fortunate to have some key moments and it’s been fun in perspective. ”
“Ollie” remained on a tear, as he had hit the post prior to scoring that goal with his pin-ball mastery. His second goal of the night didn’t require as much luck and will, and the play itself was started by his goaltender, Philipp Grubauer. Colorado was in Seattle’s zone, taking up enough time down there to make you wonder if they were paying rent, when Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon sent a puck into the crease trying to target one of his two teammates that were camped there. Grubauer made an excellent play with his stick to swat it away, where teammate Yanni Gourde would send it up the boards for Eeli Tolvanen to push further along. Tolvanen was able to get it fully down the ice this time, out of harms away, as it became a lead pass for Bjorkstrand in open ice. It was a race that Colorado defenseman Cale Makar wouldn’t win, as Bjorkstrand was left all alone to challenge Georgiev, and the sweet ping of frozen rubber on metal pipe alerted Ball Arena that the Danish forward had won that challenge. Seattle was up by two goals, silencing the Colorado fans and stunning an Avalanche team that had heavily dominated the first frame.
“Felt nice throughout the whole series. I’d like to contribute with goals and offensively but try to stick with it. And game seven, I didn’t want to go out not being able to sleep at night because I didn’t perform well. So felt like I try to give it a push and I don’t know, some nights you just kind of feel the puck better and I feel like this is one of those nights. ”
Seattle Kraken forward Oliver Bjorkstrand against the Colorado Avalanche through this season (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Salute the video analysts
In back-to-back games, the Seattle Kraken video team has been able to take a Colorado goal off the board thanks to a review. Video coach Tim Ohashi and video assistant Brady Morgan are responsible for taking what would’ve been the first goal of game six off the board, and what would’ve been the game tying goal in tonight’s game. While unfortunately the review to take the goal off in game six didn’t end up mattering as Colorado won by three goals but did save the record for Seattle scoring first in every game of the series, the goal that they had challenged in tonight’s series-deciding contest was huge. Without the quick decision making and clever eyes of Ohashi and Morgan, game seven may have gone into the overtime period and who knows if Seattle is able to pull it out.
After Bjorkstrand scored the first two goals of the game to give Seattle the most dangerous lead in hockey (and soccer, funny enough), Colorado was able to get one back in the second period thanks to Mikko Rantanen’s seventh goal of the season off his backside. Nathan MacKinnon hammered the puck from the faceoff circle as Rantanen provided a moving screen, and the puck went off his bottom for a power play goal with less than thirty seconds before the intermission. With the momentum seemingly on their side, the Avalanche seemed to have everything going their way when Nathan MacKinnon hammered a shot from the slot through tons of traffic to beat Grubauer and tie the game at two. Ohashi and Morgan saw an offsides occur on the entry and let the Seattle bench know immediately to challenge. Upon video replay, it was incredibly apparent that BOTH Artturi Lehkonen and Mikko Rantanen were offsides, taking the goal off the board and leaving us with a score of two-to-one. The video team had brought another score off the board, this being the most critical one to date.
“It’s nice. It’s not tied then. A good bounce for us, it was offside and it’s the right call. After that, we regrouped and just kept going... I think it helped us a little bit, wake up a little bit. So nice to see it be called back and it gave us some life.”
“Oh, I knew before he scored it was offside. Obviously. That’s obviously a huge turning point in the game, right? If they tied it up, it’s two-two. It’s maybe a different game.”
Seattle Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer in games three and four of the series (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Grubauer’s revenge
Believers in Philipp Grubauer, and generally folks who understand how hockey works and don’t just check box scores/blame goalies, your time is now. The German Gentleman delivered all series long for this Kraken team, just as he has since returning from injury in his first start of the 2023 calendar year. With the fourth best goals saved above expected across all goaltenders in the playoffs, it became more and more apparent that Grubauer was keeping Seattle in this series against his former team. Game seven of the series, with the increased pressure of it being win or go home and in his former home barn, and once again the German born goaltender showed out and locked down the pipes for Seattle when they needed him most.
“I don’t know. You can answer that. Guys made it really easy for me to see Pucks and the ones I didn’t see, we did a hell of a job blocking them. Even the first period when they came out and pushed and I think had their best period, they had some great chances and yeah, we were holding against them. ”
Similar to the tenacity and aggression that the Avalanche attack showed in game six, Colorado came out ready to strike against Seattle in period one and likely should have considering how lopsided the first twenty minutes were in terms of pressure. While the Kraken found a few shifts in the opening minutes that saw them get some shots, the remaining 15 minutes was a flurry of Avalanche chances that Grubauer was able to turn away time after time. No matter if it was from the faceoff (Colorado dominated them in the first frame), in the high slot, or up in the crease on a loose puck; Grubauer remained firm like a brick wall for Seattle. The German Gentleman remained as the guiding path up this mountain for the Kraken, despite the dangerous obstacles that the Avalanche presented throughout this series.
“Huge part of our success. I mean, the whole playoff series here, he’s stepped up. Really big part of why we were able to win the series. He played unbelievable and it’s fun to see. ”
“Incredible. Means a lot to the organization and this team and obviously for the people that have written us off early in the season or since the start, yeah, here we are and it’s been great.”
Seattle Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer in game six of the series (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Hold the line
After the Colorado “goal” was taken off, Bjorkstrand looked for a way to pad the lead while also securing a hat trick, but the metal pipes of the Avalanche goal were not so kind in aiding his search for that third goal. Both teams battled back and forth, essentially throwing shift after shift at each other as Bjorkstrand continued to ferociously fight towards a third goal for himself and his team while Grubauer continued to make spectacular stop time and time again to hold on to the lead. The final two minutes saw the Kraken nearly get the puck down the ice for the empty net goal to lock the win in, but with their season on the line the Avalanche ensured that they were going to do their best at least ATTEMPTING to equalize. As we approached the final minute, Seattle was able to grind the puck along the boards to wash away the time, nearly flinging themselves at Colorado on the backcheck. The Kraken made sure that the Avalanche couldn’t get another shot on net, and Seattle had claimed victory. Without their top scorer, no Andre Burakovsky still, and no “top superstar,” and Seattle had knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champs.
“Yeah, I think it says it all about our team. It’s just depth. Every line can score on every given night, defenseman, forwards, whatever. So that’s how we have success as a team and something we got to keep striving for. ”
“Huge. I mean, they had so many chances, not just this game, but over the last couple of games right in the slot or like on the power play where we I think we did an amazing job with how many penalty kills we had to kill off here of blocking shots and guys sacrificing their body and putting everything on the line. And that’s what we need moving forward and that’s what we needed the series to make a difference here. ”
The slopes weren’t smooth, but the team sails on
This Colorado series brought nail-biting wins and losses, an overtime win, and tough multi-score loss, and a game seven to Seattle fans that were experiencing their team in its first ever Stanley Cup Playoff series. That’s plenty of stress, heart racing with thankfully just enough Lithium and Come and Get your love to move on to the second round, when the team begins this entire journey all over again. Obviously, there aren’t any other series yet to compare it to, but this one against the Avalanche will certainly be remembered forever not only because it was the first, but because of the battle it presented. Taking game one in Colorado, the first ever Stanley Cup Playoff game at Climate Pledge Arena, the Makar hit that took McCann out, Eberle’s game winner, Eberle’s hit on Cogliano, and the game seven moment amongst others. We witness history often with Seattle, and while that is bound to continue considering how young the franchise is, the Kraken continues to make waves in the league history books for the right reasons. Now, the Avalanche bear witness to the riptide of a story that Kraken hockey is writing.
“I think it’s huge for us, for the team and our confidence as a group bouncing back from last year and then obviously for the city of Seattle, you feel the excitement there and how much they want to back us up, so, yeah, it’s fun being a part of. ”
“Absolutely, it’s huge. But we’ve shown it all year that we can play with best, we can beat the best. And obviously going into this series, when you look at the regular season games, they were pretty tight and pretty even... nobody thought like they were going to sweep us in four games... Obviously, personally, I don’t know what to say. It means a lot beating or ending their season and beating the defending Standing Cup champion. So lots more to come for our group, but it’s only series one.”
“It’s a great feeling. So proud of this group. We battle so hard, especially as a second year in this league, and just making the playoffs is an accomplishment. We battle so hard all year long but getting the win here in game seven showed how much character, how much care we have for one another, how much belief we have in this locker room, in this group. And we showed all year long that offensively, all five on five were pretty good. But the character, the blocking shots, the making, the plays, the defensive plays, Grubi stepping up. This is what we love in this first series.”
Some of the physicality displayed in game six of the series between the Colorado Avalanche and our Seattle Kraken (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Take their place among the Stars
Following their victory in the Summit series, the Kraken turn their attention to a Dallas Stars team that they played tightly in two of the three contests that they met this year, all taking place in March. In the first and last games that the teams met in; Seattle should’ve come out with two victories but settled with one overtime win. Game two was a three-goal loss, but the others were hard fought, and both went into overtime. While it isn’t as bad of a matchup for the Kraken as the Minnesota Wild would’ve been (Seattle did not fare well against them in their last matchup of the regular season), this Stars team was one of the best in the NHL for several reasons. Goaltender Jake Oettinger brings it up to another level in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and he’s done so in their round one series victory over the Wild. Dallas has more depth than Colorado does, as evident as nearly all the contribution of goals came from the Avalanche top line of Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Rantanen. It will not be easy by any means, but considering the way that the Kraken challenged the Stars in their head-to-head games, I think they have a fighting chance.
“I mean, same thing as Colorado, I think when you look at the regular season, pretty tight games here, but they’re a really good team and in the playoffs the cards get mixed newly and they’re fresh and we got a couple of days of rest, so we got to make sure we prepare ourselves really well.”
The Seattle Kraken hosted the Dallas Stars on March 13th, 2023 for Pride Night (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Quick notes
With Oliver Bjorkstrand’s goal at --- in the second period, the Kraken became the second team in NHL history to score first in every game of a best-of-seven series, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs back in the 2004 Conference quarterfinals
Tonight tallied Bjorkstrand’s first multi-goal game of his Stanley Cup Playoff career
Seattle became the first NHL franchise to earn its first series win against a reigning Stanley Cup Champion
What’s next?
Seattle will get a very short turnaround time and limited opportunity to celebrate their first ever Stanley Cup Playoff series win in franchise history, as game one of the second round against the Dallas Stars takes place on Tuesday, May 2nd. The Kraken will have to soak up all the rest that they can on Monday after landing in Dallas before game one’s battle against a Stars team that dispatched the Minnesota Wild in six games. Puck drop for the opening contest of this series is at 6:30PM PST and will be broadcast on 6:30PM PST on ESPN, as sadly the Root Sports crew is done for the year broadcasting the team's game, but they will have shoulder and social content still coming out. While again, Seattle opens as the underdog of this series, I will never doubt the ability of this team considering what we’ve witnessed this year.