Commentary: Kraken can aim even higher after tying playoff series with Avalanche

SEATTLE – Soak it in, live it up – this is officially a hockey town. The big screen at Climate Pledge Arena featured a series of the city’s most iconic sports moments before the game, and then the Kraken added to the list three hours later.

Jordan Eberle delivered a winning goal in overtime to give Seattle a 3-2 victory over the Avalanche and tie the series 2-2. As euphoric as fans were at the time and continue to be at this moment – they should be thinking this now: Series win or bust.

“We were joking before the game that this is the biggest game in Kraken history. It’s fun to be part of something from the floor up,” Eberle said. “But we still have a lot to prove. We want to prove that we belong in this league and that we can compete with all these teams.”

A conversation I had with a co-worker before the game went more or less like this: If the Kraken can somehow get to a Game 6, this postseason is a success.

It would mean that the home fans – the ones who caused season tickets to sell out within minutes of going on the market – would get three playoff games. It would mean that even in a loss, the crowd would be able to bid its team farewell after a thrilling Year 2. Or it would mean that a Game 7 – the most exciting two words in sports – would be on the horizon.

If the Kraken could just ensure that Monday night, a legitimate celebration should ensue. Then Game 4 actually started … and that convo with my colleague was rendered ridiculous.

Suddenly, this wasn’t just putting forth a respectable effort to momentarily reward the fans and build toward 2023-24. Hell no. Now this was about stomping out a newfound rival and chopping down the reigning champs.

That feeling – palpable throughout Climate Pledge Arena – came to be for two reasons. The first was the Kraken going ahead 2-0 10 minutes and 9 seconds into the game. It reinforced the idea they belonged on the same rink with a second-seeded Avalanche team most suspected to breeze past a fledgling franchise.

This was the third time in four meetings that Seattle established a two-goal lead against the 2022 Stanley Cup winners. Why couldn’t they sneak by them in a series?

But the second and far more salient reason occurred just before that second goal – when Colorado superstar Cale Makar slammed a defenseless Jared McCann into the boards after the puck was out of play, prompting a major penalty call that was downgraded to a minor.

Why it was downgraded seemed to baffle press row, with most concluding that Makar’s status and generally gentle reputation being the reason. But it didn’t stop the crowd from booing every time Makar touched the puck for the rest of the game, and it didn’t prevent the notably mild-mannered Kraken players from engaging in their chippiest behavior of the season.

At the end of the first period, with Seattle still up 2-0, it looked as if three fights might break out at once. Minutes earlier, Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn straight-up shoved Avs center Evan Rodrigues to the ice, and by the end of regulation Seattle had set a franchise record with 51 hits.

“A rivalry is born” was all the talk after the first intermission. A couple of us mentioned soon-to-be ruined columns and game stories as well, and sure enough, Colorado evened the score 2-2 with less than a minute to go in the second period.

It was the same two games earlier, when Seattle relinquished a two-goal lead and watched the Avs tie the series at 1-1. Talent superseding grit. Star power outshining physical play.

Suddenly, this was an Avalanche goal from this becoming the rivalry that never was. A 3-1 series advantage going back to Colorado? Posterity wasn’t going to glorify this series if the Kraken were bounced in five.

A win wasn’t a desire anymore, it was necessary. It was required to validate Seattle’s effort in this series and provide their fans with the greatest win in the organization’s two-year history. It looked as if that aspiration might come to fruition midway through the third period, when the puck slid by Colorado goalkeeper Alexandar Georgiev, but the whistle had blown. No goal.

No matter.

This one wasn’t meant for regulation. It needed the theater exclusive to overtime, when a goal sends players and fans into instant ecstasy. Eberle provided that 3 minutes into overtime. His team provided the city with a historic triumph.

“The biggest thing for me is that you kind of want to make this a hockey town and have people love going to Kraken games and enjoy the product of playoff hockey, which is obviously why we play the game,” Eberle said. “It’s unbelievable.”

This is a hockey town now, and the Kraken aren’t just here to play. They’re here to win. Allow yourselves those expectations.