It took the Colorado Avalanche six games of these playoffs to finally look like the defending Stanley Cup champions. Reunion for Game 7 and a chance to get rid of the invading Seattle Kraken.
Mikko Rantanen scored his seventh playoff goal, Artturi Lehkonen scored twice including a last-second opener and the Avalanche beat Kraken 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs on Friday night.
Rantanen scored in the closing seconds of the first half to level the game at 1 after Seattle scored again to open.
The Avalanches then dominated the final two periods, showing what made them Stanley Cup champions a season ago.
"I don't think we've had a full 60 (minutes), good full 60, and today we had it. We had three good games,
although they still got the first goal, but we (persevered) and it played our identity.” Rantanen said.
Erik Johnson scored his first goal of the playoffs with a 7-21 rebound in the second. Toews had two assists, as did Cale Makar after a five-game suspension.
“We recovered after the game. Whenever we faced adversity, we said we'd take it one step at a time and get straight to the point," Makar said.
"A big character win for us tonight that hopefully gives a lot of guys the confidence in what we're about are capable.".
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