Kraken Fail To Cash-In Early, Lose To Avalanche

Kraken forward Jared McCann and his teammates have lived through some rough moments in this building whenever the Colorado Avalanche come to town.

A touch of that receded Tuesday night when McCann scored the 100^th goal of his Kraken career to pull his team even in the second period, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a 3-2 loss to an undermanned Colorado group in a game where the home team’s offense dried up the final 40 minutes. It was the kind of game where the Kraken could have used the back-end offense and finishing ability of injured defenseman Vince Dunn, who will be out indefinitely with a mid-body injury and missed his second straight contest.

But McCann wasn’t about to use any of that as an excuse after his team’s three-game win streak was halted.

“Someone’s got to step up,” McCann said after the Kraken slipped to 4-3 on the season. “We’ve got to step up collectively. Obviously, he’s a huge loss. He’s a big part of this team. But injuries happen in this league, and it’s an opportunity for a young guy to step up and make a difference.”

Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans stepped up in the game’s final stages, scoring with 3.5 seconds to go in regulation and goalie Philipp Grubauer pulled for an extra attacker. But it was too late to make a difference by that point, with a pair of earlier Colorado markers by Joel Kiviranta and another from Nathan MacKinnon having staked the visitors to a two-goal lead that held up almost the entire final frame.

The Avalanche have now won seven of nine-lifetime games at Climate Pledge Arena, the Kraken falling to 2-6-1 against them at home, including their opening-round playoff series from two springs ago. It was in that series that McCann, the team’s 40-goal leader that season, was blasted into the boards after the whistle by Avalanche defender Cale Makar and missed the final three games with a concussion.

Makar has since been booed whenever he touches a puck within Seattle city limits, including on Tuesday when he passed to MacKinnon in the high slot for a gut-punch goal with eight seconds to go in the second period that put Colorado up 3-1.

But despite McCann’s injury that April 2023 playoff series, the Kraken still rallied to win in seven games by taking two of the final three contests on the road at Ball Arena. Much as they’ll now need to dig deep and find some offense without Dunn, having scored just one even-strength goal in his absence the last two games.

“I thought we played great in the first 20 minutes,” McCann said. “We controlled a lot of the play. We had a lot of good offensive zone looks. But I don’t think we got as many pucks to the net as we would like and bodies there. But that’s something to watch and learn from.”

Indeed, the Kraken certainly started out looking as if they’d manage quite a few more goals than they ultimately got against Colorado netminder Justus Annunen, with Yanni Gourde hitting the post in the opening minute off a Tye Kartye pass and the Kraken buzzing the Colorado net seemingly at will.

Kraken coach Dan Bylsma called it his team’s “best first period of the year” despite the lack of goals as they piled up a 12-5 shot advantage. But then Kiviranta beat Grubauer to the blocker side with under two minutes to go until intermission to knock some air out of the Kraken’s ballooning offensive thrust.

Colorado held a 17-5 shot advantage in the middle period despite McCann tying things midway through with his fourth of the season on the backhand after Shane Wright and Jordan Eberle did an outstanding job of keeping possession in the zone. But Kiviranta scored again off a deflection with five minutes to play in the frame ahead of MacKinnon’s back-breaker in the closing seconds before intermission.

The Kraken struggled to generate chances from there until the final few minutes against an Avs’ team that had yielded a league-high 4.83 goals per game in their first six contests and opened this game with three rookies -- Calum Ritchie, Ivan Ivan and Matt Stienburg – in their lineup.

Bylsma agreed with McCann that somebody will need to step up in Dunn’s absence, suggesting there are multiple candidates.

“I think Vince is a guy who seems to be able to come up with the right play at the right time in both passing and shooting to get us set up to get a goal,” Bylsma said. “But we’ve got plenty of others on the back end to step in and do it. Monty (Brandon Montour) is that guy. Lars (Adam Larsson) is that guy and Ryker (Evans) is that guy as he was tonight.

“But I think we need to become a little bit more determined offensive team if we’re going to score more goals and get more goals.”

That last bit, again, coincides with McCann’s talk of needing to get more pucks in deep with bodies in front of the opposing goalie. Wright and Eberle did their part, fighting to keep the puck in Colorado’s end just ahead of McCann getting a feed in deep and not missing his chance at the milestone 100^th.

And though it wasn’t enough this time, McCann, who leads the team with nine points, hopes for better things to come from a team still off to the best start in franchise history seven games in.

“Obviously, it would have been a lot nicer with a win,” McCann said of the milestone goal. “But I have a lot of people to thank for that. Obviously, being here with this organization has meant a lot to me and my family, getting an opportunity to stay somewhere and getting an opportunity to play.”

Joel Kiviranta’s second goal of the night on a deflection past Philipp Grubauer put the Avalanche ahead to stay with just more than five minutes to go in the middle frame. And then, with only eight seconds to play until intermission, Nathan MacKinnon dealt the Kraken a gut punch with a wrist shot past Grubauer to give the visitors a multi-goal lead.

Ryker Evans scored with 3.5 seconds left in regulation, and Grubauer pulled for an extra attacker, but it was far too late to change the outcome.

It marked the seventh time in nine tries that the Avalanche have vanquished the Kraken in their own building, a 2-6-1 mark for the home side that includes dropping two of three at Climate Pledge in their playoff series two springs ago. And it served notice to the Kraken, whose three-game win streak came to an end, that they still have work ahead to parlay this strong 4-3 start to their season into something more lasting.

It was in that opening round playoff series in April 2023 that McCann took a late hit in Game 4 at Climate Pledge from Avalanche star defender Cale Makar after the whistle had gone. He suffered a concussion that knocked him out of the remainder of that series, won by the Kraken in seven games largely because they took three of four contests on the road at Ball Arena.

Makar has been booed whenever he so much as touches a puck in this city ever since, including on Tuesday night right as he slid a pass to MacKinnon in the high slot for his power play goal that made it a 3-1 game. And just as the Kraken found a way to prevail in that opening round without their 40-goal man McCann in the final three contests, they’ll need to do more in coming weeks with top defenseman Vince Dunn now on Long Term Injured Reserve with an undisclosed mid-body injury.

This was the team’s second game without Dunn and they’ve scored just one even strength goal that span. They struggled to generate chances the final two periods of this one against an Avs’ team that had yielded a league-high 4.83 goals per game in their first six contests and opened this one with three rookies -- Calum Ritchie, Ivan Ivan and Matt Stienburg – in their lineup.

They certainly started out looking as if they’d manage quite a few more against Colorado netminder Justus Annunen, with Yanni Gourde hitting the post in the opening minute off a Tye Kartye pass and the Kraken buzzing the Colorado net seemingly at will.

The Kraken went on to outshoot Colorado 12-5 in the period but trailed 1-0 after Kiviranta beat Grubauer blocker-side with a shot just inside the post with only 88 seconds remaining that frame. And the offense slowed considerably from there, managing only 15 shots the rest of the game – six of them coming on a power play the final two minutes of regulation with Grubauer pulled to put the Kraken up by two men.

Colorado held a 17-5 shot advantage in the middle period despite McCann scoring his fourth of the season on the backhand midway through after Shane Wright and Jordan Eberle did an outstanding job of maintaining possession of a loose puck.