Tye Kartye scored in his NHL debut, Yanni Gourde and Morgan Geekie also had goals, and the Seattle Kraken beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in Game 5 of their series in Denver on Wednesday night.
Philipp Grubauer turned away 26 shots to give the Kraken a 3-2 lead in the first playoff series in franchise history. Game 6 will be Friday in Seattle.
Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist, Evan Rodrigues also scored, and Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves for Colorado.
The Avalanche played without defenseman Cale Makar, who served a one-game suspension for his hit on Kraken forward Jared McCann in Monday’s Game 4. McCann missed Wednesday and is expected to be out for Game 6.
Colorado was also without forward Valeri Nichushkin (personal reasons) and Darren Helm (upper-body injury).
Seattle struck first when Jaden Schwartz put a shot on net that Georgiev saved, but Geekie was in front to knock in the rebound at 6:35 of the second period. It was his second goal of the postseason.
The Avalanche got even when Grubauer tried to clear the puck up the boards but Mikko Rantanen stopped it near the left circle. MacKinnon deflected Rantanen’s shot past Grubauer at 7:55.
It was MacKinnon’s third of the series.
The Kraken answered minutes later when Jordan Eberle skated behind the net to the bottom of the left circle and fed Kartye in the other circle. His one-timer beat Grubauer at 9:59 to give Seattle a 2-1 lead, where the score remained after two periods.
The Kraken went ahead by two goals early in the third. Oliver Bjorkstrand passed the puck out to Carson Soucy at the point, and his shot through traffic was deflected by Gourde and past Georgiev at 1:40.
It was his first goal of the playoffs.
Georgiev went off for an extra skater with 3:50 left, and Rodrigues scored 13 seconds later when his shot from the point went off two Seattle skaters and in for his first of the postseason.
Georgiev went off again but Colorado couldn’t get the equalizer.
–Field Level Media
