Five games have worn down and whittled away at the defending champions. In the same span, time has enlivened a sophomore franchise.
While Cale Makar was caged and Nathan MacKinnon was outraged, the Kraken pushed the Avalanche to the brink of first-round elimination Wednesday night with a punishing 3-2 win at Ball Arena. Seattle leads the series 3-2.
The Avs have lost all four of their playoff Game 5s in the past three seasons, a streak dating back to the 2020 pandemic bubble. Their current core has also never won a Game 7, but it will have to this year if Colorado wants to advance its Stanley Cup title defense beyond the first round.
“We’re going to have to reset,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “… It’s Game 5, a game you want to win. It’s at home. You lose a heart-breaker in overtime the other day as you kind of chip away, which wasn’t a great game for us. I still feel like we haven’t played anywhere near our best.”
Game 6 is Friday night in Seattle. The last time the Avalanche won a seven-game series was in May 2002, vs. the San Jose Sharks.
Seattle has suffocated Colorado with its forecheck and shooting-lane presence, which has grown in intensity with every passing contest. At first, even in defeat, the Avs made Philipp Grubauer make saves. They averaged 36.7 shots on goal per game while taking a 2-1 series lead. The last two losses have looked more characteristic of the Kraken’s game — aggressive checking in all three zones and stubborn shot suppression. The Avalanche averaged 25 SOG in Games 4 and 5.
“But what do you expect? It’s the playoffs,” Bednar said. “We expect them not to block shots? Not to get in shooting lanes? Not to be committed? It’s what you have to expect this time of the year. It’s tough. It’s supposed to be tough. That’s why it’s the most difficult trophy to win. That’s why it’s so rewarding when you win it.”
Seattle was outshooting Colorado 15-7 at first intermission, tilting the ice as expected with Makar suspended one game, but this time the Avalanche escaped the opening period scoreless. It wasn’t until the halfway point that Game 5 turned.
By then, the teams had exchanged goals — Seattle has struck first in all five contests — and the Avs had a sniff of momentum. MacKinnon was in the process of changing directions to pursue a puck along the offensive-zone boards when he crashed to the ice. It appeared that Will Borgen’s skate had clipped MacKinnon’s, but the referee didn’t call a penalty — the second time during the game MacKinnon thought he had been tripped without the refs cracking down on the Kraken.
“I spin, I get five feet on a guy and he takes my feet out,” MacKinnon said. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. It’s not 1975. I feel like that’s a trip.”
But visibly livid, MacKinnon turned away from the puck to gesture to the nearest official and smash his stick against the glass. Meanwhile, Seattle had possession and was racing to the opposite end.
Tye Kartye was making his NHL debut. He was in the lineup because Kraken leading scorer Jared McCann was out — the injury residue of Makar’s suspension-earning hit. The 21-year-old from Ontario was in the right place at the right time, stationed in the right faceoff circle and poised for a pass from Jordan Eberle.
Eberle had circled the net with the puck. He scored the overtime winner in Game 4. He assisted the Game 5 go-ahead goal, Kartye’s first in the league.
“I’ve got to keep my cool there better,” MacKinnon said. “I can’t get upset. That’s on me there.”
If MacKinnon had gotten the call, the Avalanche would have had a power play in a tie game. But they didn’t take advantage of the ones that did get called, anyway. Without Makar quarterbacking the top unit, Colorado went 0 fo -2 and fell to 1-for-12 on the series with a man advantage.
MacKinnon scored the first Avalanche goal by swatting a Mikko Rantanen shot out of the air. Those two have combined for eight goals in this series. The rest of the team has combined for six.
But Evan Rodrigues got one of those six with a fortuitous bounce as fans filtered out of Ball Arena. It gave Colorado life with 3:37 remaining, but pulling Alexandar Georgiev wasn’t enough.
“They keep coming,” Devon Toews said. “We’re struggling to break the puck out at times and play as a connected group. … Consistently right now has been tough.”
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