Avalanche rally past Kraken, extend home streak to 12

DENVER-- Nazem Kadri and Devon Toews scored in the third period for the Colorado Avalanche, who rallied for a 4-3 win against the Seattle Kraken at Ball Arena on Monday.

Toews tied 3-3 at 11:47 when Cale Makar's shot hit the post and deflected in off his right skate. A video review determined that Toews didn't use a distinct kicking motion to score the goal.
Kadri then gave Colorado the lead with 5:43 left, skating down left wing before beating Philipp Grubauer short side.
"I was looking to pass it, but I had some room to walk in and just wanted to stay aggressive and was able to find that short side," Kadri said. "Obviously I played with 'Grubi' for [two] years and I know some of his tendencies for sure, but I wasn't really thinking about that. He's a great goaltender and he robbed me earlier in the game, so I think I owed him one."
Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored two goals, and Andre Burakovsky had two assists for Colorado (22-8-2), which is 11-1-1 in its past 13 games and extended its Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques record to 12 straight home wins, the longest streak in the NHL this season. Pavel Francouz made 23 saves.
"Give credit to them, they came out hard," Kadri said. "We've got to find ways to get off to a better start, but that being said, it's always nice to get the job done. We have to find a way to start on time. They work hard. They may not have a crazy deep lineup, but they're going to make you earn everything. Our team's showing a lot of maturity and a lot of character coming back in these types of fashion."

Grubauer made 31 saves for Seattle (10-20-4) in his return to Colorado after signing a six-year contract with the Kraken as an unrestricted free agent on July 28. Jared McCann had a goal and assist.
"I wasn't sure if they were boos or 'Gruus' (from the crowd) coming back here," said Grubauer, who played three seasons with the Avalanche and was a Vezina Trophy finalist last season. "If it was a 'Gruus,' I definitely appreciate it. The love and the appreciation and the support I got here, it's been incredible. Denver is always a special place in my heart, especially the fans, too, and the people come out. It feels amazing for sure."
The Kraken played their first game since a 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 1.
"We played a darn good hockey game, but at the end of the day, you have to address what the result is," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "We didn't come here to play a good hockey game, we came to win a hockey game. This is a tough building to win in. These guys are good here, they're a [heck] of a team, but this is about us."
The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead at 5:50 of the first period when Aube-Kubel scored from the slot off a drop pass from Logan O'Connor.
Marcus Johansson tied 1-1 at 9:16, tipping McCann's point shot under Francouz's left arm on a power play. McCann made it 2-1 at 4:49 of the second period on a bad angle shot from near the left wing boards.
Colin Blackwell increased the lead to 3-1 at 14:20 with a deflection of Jamie Oleksiak's point shot.
Aube-Kubel cut it to 3-2 at 17:00 when he converted the rebound of Burakovsky's shot.
"I talked to them after the second period and I sensed some frustration from our guys, the second period especially," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "You've got to give Seattle credit, they checked hard. We did not do some of the things that we wanted to do, especially on our entries. We turned the puck over a lot, we played in front of their defense, we were forcing things into a crowd.
"Third period, we dialed it up a bit, one or two notches, and were able to do more that we wanted. We'll take the win, but there's certainly some things that we can take a look at."

The Kraken are 0-4-2 in their past six games, and Grubauer is 0-4-3 in his past seven.
"There's a lot of positives out of that game even though we didn't win, didn't get the points," Grubauer said. "Sometimes you play great and don't come away with the win. We played a decent game, in the first two [periods] especially. We let them off the hook in the last period. They're a really good team at home. They've done it enough times. I've been at the other end where we came out in the third period and crushed other teams."
NOTES: Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog tested positive and entered COVID-19 protocol on Monday. … Kadri has scored 21 points (six goals, 15 assists) in a personal point streak of 12 games. … Nathan MacKinnon's point streak ended at 13 games (24 points; four goals, 20 assists). … Kraken forward Alexander Wennberg, who had been in COVID-19 protocol since Jan. 3, was minus-1 in 11:47 of ice time. … Kraken forward Yanni Gourde had an assist on Blackwell's goal and has scored four points (two goals, two assists) in a four-game streak.