Kraken overwhelmed by Avalanche in first home playoff game, trail 2-1 in series

A seesaw night of emotions for Seattle’s first major professional hockey game in more than a century had Kraken fans living, dying and reviving themselves with each gut-wrenching, spirit-lifting swing of events.

Saturday night’s uplifting Game 3 playoff spectacle at Climate Pledge Arena seemed over for the Kraken midway through before a pair of goals 19 seconds apart by Jamie Oleksiak and Matty Beniers reignited the passionate, sold-out crowd to levels they had shown much earlier on.

But then, just as quickly, it was indeed over early in the third period as top Colorado Avalanche scorers Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon sealed a 6-4 defeat for the home side with goals 88 seconds apart that put the Kraken in their first series deficit.

Colorado leads the best-of-seven, opening-round series 2-1 with Game 4 set for Climate Pledge on Monday night.

MacKinnon had been held to a lone assist the first two games but scored a pair for Colorado. Rantanen has three goals in the series after also tallying the lone Avalanche marker in the opener and adding an empty-netter to cap his two-goal performance at the end of this one.

Jaden Schwartz scored his second goal of the night for the Kraken with 40 seconds to go to close things out.

The Beniers goal was a welcome sign for the Kraken, as it marked the first points of the series for his top scoring regular-season line – with Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann also drawing assists. But other issues continued to plague the Kraken, starting with a power play that went 1 for 6 in the game.

The Kraken had taken the ice to a rousing ovation from 17,151 fans who truly did fill all of the arena’s seats for this one. They erupted in a frenzy when Schwartz redirected a Justin Schultz point shot before the game was even seven minutes old.

But just when it appeared they’d head to intermission with the lead, self-inflicted disaster struck. A power play that’s been bad all series turned miserable when Daniel Sprong fell down and allowed J.T. Compher to waltz in alone and tie things with just under four minutes to go in the frame.

Then, with only 44 seconds to play in the period, Vince Dunn pinched up too far and saw MacKinnon breeze on by him for a breakaway and go-ahead goal on Philipp Grubauer. But the worst was still to come just 4:33 into the middle period when Beniers got beaten cleanly on an own zone faceoff – another Kraken issue fast becoming a serious problem – and saw Cale Makar step into a slap shot that put the visitors ahead 3-1 and silenced any lingering energy the crowd had brought with them.

The Kraken appeared headed for certain defeat as the Avalanche took over play from there, at one point gaining a 3-on-1 chance against Grubauer that lacked finish and saw the goalie make a what turned out to be a key save. Not long after that, seemingly out of nowhere, the game suddenly turned on the strength of Oleksiak’s backhand.

Looking like a vintage Larry Robinson in his 1970s prime, the 6-foot-7, 255-pound Oleksiak gathered the puck in the left faceoff circle and lugged it forward – evading defenders around him. Then, as those defenders closed in, Oleksiak shifted to his backhand and lifted the puck high behind Alexandar Georgiev to suddenly wake the crowd up.

That crowd had yet to completely sit down when play resumed and Eberle dumped a pass in behind the Colorado net to McCann, who looked up and spotted Beniers in the slot. Beniers alertly shoved Alex Newhook out of the way just as the puck came toward him, then one-timed it in behind Georgiev to give his team new life in a game tied 3-3.

But with the Kraken carrying that emotion into the third period and nearly retaking the lead, Rantanen suddenly found himself all alone in the high slot and easily one-time a laser behind Grubauer to put the Avalanche ahead to stay.