SEATTLE — Unfriendly greetings thundered in the Avalanche's ears and an unsightly ending threatened their minds. But vanquishing a champion — no matter how depleted — is not that simple.
Before hopping on a charter plane to Seattle, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar reflected that he couldn't recall a season in his playing or coaching career with obstacles as constant as this. "The adversity for this team has been relentless this year," he said.
The Avalanche staved off their adversity and their elimination for at least one more game Saturday with a 4-1 win at Climate Pledge Arena here Friday night. The Avs and Kraken play a deciding Game 7 Sunday (7:30 p.m. MT) at Ball Arena in this first-round playoff series.
"It's going to be a great atmosphere," said Artturi Lehkonen, who scored twice in Game 6 to add to his repertoire of clutch goals.
Elimination games might feel unfamiliar to the defending champs, but a Game 6 on the road after a loss is apparently this squad's ultimate comfort zone. The Avs clinched a series twice under those circumstances last season en route to winning the Cup. The only difference this time was a 3-2 deficit, rather than a 3-2 lead.
And the absence of top-six forward Valeri Nichushkin after he was involved in a police incident in Seattle a week ago. And the plot twist of Cale Makar now being a villain. Returning from a Game 5 suspension, Makar was jeered at every touch of the puck, as expected. Teammates jokingly booed him during morning skate.
"It'll be nice to play on home ice, that's for sure," Makar said of Game 7.
The series-tying victory was also the Avalanche's third comeback win of the series.
"We finally got to wear them down," Evan Rodrigues said. "We were hanging onto the puck and making them defend. When you're consistently in the O-zone, like they were to us in the first five games, you have energy to defend. And I think we started to take it to them."
"That was the best our execution has been in the series, for sure," Bednar said.
A fierce second-period showing was the key, with a 14-4 shooting edge. Erik Johnson, the longest-tenured Avs player, scored the game-winning goal for a 2-1 lead after never finding the back of the net in the regular season.
Otherwise, the stars shined. Toews, Lehkonen, Mikko Rantanen, Makar and Nathan MacKinnon were all plus-three goals while on the ice.
The Avalanche skated and checked hard from the jump but looked jittery with the puck. It eventually caught up with them. Bednar's desperation new-look second line — Evan Rodrigues moved from right to left, Lars Eller at center and J.T. Compher moved from center to right wing — thought it had cracked the case of the first goal. After a nifty drop pass from Compher, Bo Byram had struck a beautiful one-timer. But Seattle challenged for offside, revealing that Rodrigues lost track of the puck for a millisecond behind him during his zone entry. Byram's first career playoff goal was overturned.
Moments later, Rodrigues was involved in a sloppy breakout exchange at Colorado's blue line. The Kraken took over, and Johnson's bad clear attempt off the boards landed on Vince Dunn's stick for a giveaway goal. Seattle scored first for the sixth consecutive game.
But another significant lineup change paid off 19 seconds before intermission. Since the series opener, Nathan MacKinnon and Rantanen had spearheaded separate lines, although those lines were blurred by Game 5 with both handling astronomical minutes. With Avalanche backs to the wall? Bednar got the band back together, formally.
"There's lots of things I consider (in line combinations), but I don't really want to share them all at this point," a wry Bednar said.
Rantanen cleaned up a nice rebound pass from Rodrigues at the net front, right after MacKinnon scorched into the zone with the puck and plenty of desperation. The Avs narrowly escaped the first, tied and energized.
"I saw (Rantanen) backdoor, and there was a D and goalie right in front of me," Rodrigues said. "So I figured I'd just kind of touch it over there."
Colorado looked recalibrated in the second. It was vintage Avalanche championship hockey — defensemen driving the offense, skill and pace tiring the less talented opponent. Andrew Cogliano was boarded and sent to the dressing room on a brutal crosscheck by Jordan Eberle, but even that couldn't keep him or Colorado down; Cogliano defiantly returned for the start of the third period.
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