Artturi Lehkonen had a goal and an assist in his return to the lineup, Nathan MacKinnon had a career-high five assists and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Seattle Kraken 6-3 in Denver on Tuesday night.
Lehkonen missed the first 12 games of the season while rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery.
Mikko Rantanen had two goals, Nikolai Kovalenko had a goal and an assist, Ivan Ivan and Chris Wagner also scored and Justus Annunen turned away 17 shots for Colorado, which snapped a three-game skid.
Cale Makar had two assists for the Avalanche before leaving the game in the third period due to an undisclosed injury.
Matty Beniers and Jared McCann each had a goal and an assist, Jaden Schwartz also scored and Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves for the Kraken.
The Avalanche went ahead just 2:28 into the game when Wagner scored his first goal of the season off a pass from MacKinnon. Seattle tied the game at 12:58 when Beniers’ pass to the front of the crease went off Schwartz’s left skate and into the net.
It was his third marker of the season.
Colorado went back in front 1:14 later when Ivan cleaned up Kovalenko’s shot for his third goal of the campaign.
The Kraken got even on the power play 23 seconds into the second period when the Avalanche turned the puck over and Chandler Stephenson passed it to McCann in the slot, and McCann beat Annunen through his pads.
It was his sixth goal of the season.
Lehkonen broke the tie at 6:44 when his blast from the slot trickled through Grubauer to make it 3-2, and Colorado extended the lead after a lengthy review.
Rantanen scored at 9:11 of the second, but Seattle challenged that Lehkonen was offsides. Lehkonen did enter the zone before the puck, but the review showed a shot by the Kraken sent the puck down the ice and negated offsides.
Grubauer came off for an extra skater and Beniers scored his third goal of 2024-25 at 17:31 of the third to make it 4-3. Seattle pulled Grubauer again, and Rantanen scored his sixth goal into an empty net.
Kovalenko scored his second goal of the season at 19:58.
–Field Level Media
