Avalanche's Season Comes to an End with 2-1 Game 7 Loss to Kraken

That's it.

The Colorado Avalanche's 2022-23 season and Stanley Cup title defense has officially come to an end.

The Avalanche suffered a First Round exit after their series against the Seattle Kraken went the distance in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but Colorado fell short 2-1 in Game 7 on Sunday night at Ball Arena.

For the Avalanche, Mikko Rantanen scored the lone goal on the power play. Andrew Cogliano did not play after suffering a C5 vertebra fracture in Game 6 and is out indefinitely. Brad Hunt made his postseason debut in place of Cogliano. In net, Alexandar Georgiev turned aside 25 of the 27 shots he faced.

For the Kraken, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice. In between the pipes, former Avalanche netminder Philipp Grubauer made 33 saves on 34 shots.

GAME SUMMARY:

It was a heartbreaking way to end what Rantanen called postgame the, "weirdest season of [his] career," but in some ways was reflective of the struggles the Avalanche faced all season long due to relentless adversity.

Even so, the team was proud to have never backed down from the onslaught of adversity they faced in the regular season - which resulted in just under 500 man games lost due to injury - and continued in the postseason.

"When I think about this team, I'm really proud of this team," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said. "The way they played, how hard they played, all year long. It was pretty impressive what they've overcome. Some years it's a little tougher than others. This was a tough one. I've been at the pro level for quite some time. There's a lot of stuff in this series that you can't plan for. We were missing key guys throughout the course of the season and other guys were stepping up and getting the job done. That's why it's so disappointing for me. It's disappointing because I wanted this group in the locker room to be able to advance and just keep giving it their all like they did all year long. I don't have a bad word to say about those guys."

But for this scrappy Avalanche squad, the continuous injuries took their toll and it became too far to overcome against a deep Kraken team. They entered Game 7 without key fixtures in their lineup all sidelined due to injury in; Cogliano, Josh Manson (undisclosed), Darren Helm (undisclosed), Valeri Nichushkin (personal reasons) and Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog - who missed the entire regular season with a knee injury.

For Colorado, it came down to a lack of consistency in the series, their secondary scoring weren't able to match the contributions that Seattle received (15 different goal scorers) the Kraken scored first in every game and were able to stifle the Avalanche's high-octane power play and injuries added into the mix served as the dagger. But the Avalanche never gave up fighting.

"We emptied the tank," Rantanen said. "We gave it all that we had. Every guy in here can look in the mirror and say that. I'm so proud of every single [teammate]."

The Avalanche came out with an electric start to Game 7, after their captain Gabriel Landeskog helped hype the team and the sold-out crowd at Ball Arena up as he was broadcasted on the jumbotron holding up a sign to, "Bring Some Noise!" just before puck drop. Colorado brought the noise early in a dominant first period where they outshot Seattle 16-6, but unfortunately they didn't have anything to show for it as Grubauer came up with some sensational stops to keep the score 0-0 heading into the second intermission.

Just under the midway mark, Nathan MacKinnon unleashed a lethal one timer point blank from the slot by the Kraken netminder extended his right pad to hold off the blast. Colorado continued to test him with promising looks as they executed their high-flying abrasive offense, but just couldn't break through after the first 20 minutes, which featured all even-strength action.

Despite Colorado's dominant first period, they fell into a 2-0 deficit before the midway mark of the second period as a result of some unfortunate bounces and breaks that went Seattle's way.

For the seventh-straight time in the series, Seattle drew the game's icebreaker just 3:24 into the middle frame. From a sharp angle, Bjorkstrand centered a puck to the net front for Brandon Tanev.

En route, Bjorkstrand's pass deflected off both the sticks of Erik Johnson and Alex Newhook, popped up over Newhook and Tanev at the net front and deflected off Ben Meyers and trickled past Georgiev.

The Avalanche didn't let up despite allowing a goal, but the Kraken capitalized at 7:22 with a quick strike. After Devon Toews missed intercepting Eeli Tolvanen's pass that rimmed the boards, the puck spat up ice where Bjorkstrand collected it for a breakaway. The Danish forward carried the puck with speed and then sniped his shot off the far post and past Georgiev to double Seattle's lead.

Colorado didn't let up.

They were stifled with some sharp saves by Grubauer, denying MacKinnon in the slot again. Additionally, Rantanen unleashed a wicked wrist shot on a breakaway that hit the crossbar.

But the Avalanche finally earned a break as they converted on the power play late in the frame which marked just their second power-play goal of the series (Colorado entered Game 7 having gone just 1-for-17 on the power play). Denis Malgin was tripped by Vince Dunn at 18:10. From the point Toews sent a feed to the left faceoff circle where MacKinnon lined up and unleashed a blistering one timer on net. The puck seemed to beat Grubauer with MacKinnon's shot alone, but the puck grazed the pants of Rantanen and he was credited with the goal to trim Colorado's deficit down 2-1 heading into the third period.

Colorado seemingly tied the score up 2-2 early in the third period with a strike from MacKinnon, but Kraken challenged for offsides and - for the second time in this series - the goal was overturned. Rantanen had entered the zone and after 17 full seconds lapped and the Avalanche cycled the puck around the zone the puck was returned to Rantanen. The Finnish winger deked in the left slot before sliding the puck to the right faceoff circle where Toews bumped it back up top between the circles for MacKinnon, who unleashed an enormous one timer over Grubauer's shoulders, but the officials deemed Artturi Lehkonen was offsides on the initial zone entry.

The Avalanche continued to press throughout the entirety of the third period, but the Kraken clogged up their shooting lanes and blocked 29 shots to seal the win and advance to the Second Round where they will take on the Dallas Stars.

NOTEWORTHY:

• Rantanen recorded his team-leading seventh goal of the postseason and second on the power play.
• With an assist on Rantanen's power-play strike, MacKinnon recorded his 100-career playoff point (45G, 55A) in 77 games.
• Cogliano did not play after suffering a C5 vertebra fracture in Game 6 from a hit from Jordan Eberle and is out indefinitely.
• Hunt made his postseason debut and joined the fourth line alongside Meyers and Malgin, but only played 41 seconds.
• Georgiev made 25 saves, while his postseason record fell to 3-4-0.
• Colorado finished the game 1-for-1 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.
• Cogliano, Manson (undisclosed), Helm (undisclosed), Nichushkin (personal reasons), Kurtis MacDermid, and Keith Kinkaid were scratches for the Avalanche. Avalanche captain Landeskog - who missed the entire regular season - will not play in the playoffs due to a knee injury.