The Seattle Kraken made their Stanley Cup playoff debut a memorable one, defeating the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche 3-1 in Game 1 of their Western Conference First Round series at Ball Arena.
Alex Wennberg had a goal and an assist, Eeli Tolvanen also scored and Philipp Grubauer made 34 saves for Seattle, which accumulated 100 points during the regular season.
"It's great. We played a good game, getting the first franchise win in playoffs, but right now this is Game 1", Wennberg said. "Obviously, we are happy about this performance, but we've got to do it again and do it again, so it's a good start and feeling for sure."
The win was especially satisfying for Grubauer, who was facing his former team. After being named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy in 2020-21, he left Colorado to sign a free-agent deal with the Kraken.
Having not approached that level in his two seasons in the Pacific Northwest, his vintage form came back just in time for the playoffs.
"It's definitely a weird feeling coming back but also like really familiar", Grubauer said. "I played with those guys in a couple of playoff series, so yeah, there's nothing better than playing against your old team in playoffs."
Mikko Rantanen had the Avalanche's only goal and Alexandar Georgiev made 27 saves as the champions look to avoid an 0-2 hole with Game 2 set for Thursday night.
"I didn't like our execution. That was probably the first thing that stood out to me", said head coach Jared Bednar. "Just sloppy from our group a little bit. I like the intensity we played with at times, but I would say they won more than their fair share of races to pucks and probably won more than their fair share of battles for pucks too."
Tolvanen scored the first playoff goal in Seattle history after intercepting a pass by Devon Toews at the left face-off dot. The initial shot was saved by Georgiev, but Tolvanen batted in the rebound as it bounced off the ice.
"It's a good way to start a game, get the puck deep", said forward Yanni Gourde. "Every line was doing it, get the puck deep, get on the forecheck, hit a few guys.
"And then when we got a chance, (Tolvanen) put the puck behind the goalie and it was a great start to the game. It's huge. Scoring the first goal it's always big in the playoffs."
Rantanen tied the game by winning an offensive zone faceoff and skating to the back edge of the crease for a cross-ice pass from Nathan MacKinnon at the edge of the left circle that bounced in off his skate.
Just 80 seconds into the second period, the Kraken would take the lead for good. Wennberg received a cross-ice pass from Jaden Schwartz and beat Georgiev glove-side over his shoulder from inside the top left circle.
"Great play by Schwartz", Wennberg said. "Obviously in playoffs like this, you've got to take advantage of this opportunity. For me, it's just try to shoot the puck. I got rewarded."
Late in the second, Grubauer was back to his old form, getting across to deny MacKinnon on the backdoor, stopping J.T, Compher, saving the rebound by Valeri Nicushkin and Rantanen in tight.
"Not out best execution tonight but still had plenty of chances, lots of good looks, just a little disconnected", MacKinnon said. "We definitely created enough, just that little bit execution wasn't there."
Morgan Geekie made it 3-1 4:03 into the third as he one-timed Wennberg's pass to the right hash mark over Georgiev's left shoulder.
"The belief in this team is that we can play really, really hard and right now you can the team effort right here", Wennberg said. "Everyone working for each other and goaltending is doing great, and this is something we can do every day."