Jared McCann and Jordan Schwartz had a goal and an assist each, Karson Kuhlman scored the game-winner and the Seattle Kraken beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Friday in Denver.
Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer turned away 17 of 19 shots against his former team before being replaced by Martin Jones midway through the third period. Jones stopped the only shot he faced.
Bowen Byram had a goal and an assist, Evan Rodrigues also scored, Valeri Nichushkin had two assists and Pavel Francouz made 35 saves for Colorado. The Avalanche have dropped two consecutive games.
Colorado honored Seattle forward Andre Burakovsky during the first timeout. Burakovsky was a member of the Stanley Cup championship team last season and scored an overtime goal in Game 1 of the finals to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Avalanche played without defenseman Devon Toews, who was scratched due to an undisclosed injury.
The Kraken got the deciding goal when Kuhlman skated around Kurtis MacDermid and slid a shot through Francouz’s legs at 12:06 of the third period. His first tally of the season snapped a 2-2 tie.
After a scoreless first period, the goals came quickly in the second. The Kraken went on the power play when Alex Newhook was called for holding Jordan Eberle 1:16 into the period, and the visitors capitalized on the advantage.
McCann sent a pass to Eberle down low, he fed Schwartz in the slot, and Schwartz’s one-timer beat Francouz at 1:38 to give Seattle a 1-0 lead. It was Schwartz’s third goal of the season.
Just 22 seconds later, a turnover in the Colorado zone ended up with McCann, who slid a backhander in for his second goal of the season.
The Avalanche got one back a few minutes later. Byram passed to Nichushkin at the bottom of the right circle, and Nichushkin sent a pass across the front of the net to Rodrigues, who buried it at 5:55.
It was his first goal of the season and first of his Colorado career.
Colorado tied it at 6:58 of the third on a short-handed goal by Byram, his second goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
