Devon Toews broke a 2-2 tie as the Colorado Avalanche overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat the Seattle Kraken 3-2 in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round series at Ball Arena.

The series is now tied at one game apiece with Game 3 set for Saturday night, the first home playoff game in Seattle's franchise history.

Toews and Artturi Lekhonen each had a goal and an assist and Alexandar Georgiev made 37 saves for the defending Stanley Cup champions.

"First period was terrible, OK? I thought that after going through Game 1 that we would be sharp and really on it in the first", said Colorado head coach Jared Bednar. 

"I thought we were tight. We played tight. No one wanted the puck. No one wanted to skate with the puck. We saw parts of that in Game 1, so to me that was the worst period we've played in the series so far.

"We knew we hadn't played our best hockey at all or anywhere close in the first [20] minutes, and part of that is with some of the things (the kraken are) doing and a lot of it is on us.

"So, breaking the game down and just trying to string a couple of shifts together [was what we did]. If it goes off track, then start fresh again, and that's what we talked about, and guys did a good job of it.

"We talked about it on the bench during the second period, and actually as the game went on as well."

Justin Schultz and Brandon Tanev had the Seattle goals, Yanni Gourde assisted on both goals and Philipp Grubauer made 38 saves for the Kraken.

"Well, series is 1-1. We're going home", said head coach Dave Hakstol. "We didn't learn a whole lot new about our team. We know what our team is. We know who we are. We're pretty comfortable with that.

"We came in and got one. We had to do that."

Schultz scored 2:40 into the game, scoring five-hole from the slot after skating into a pass by Eeli Tolvanen. 

Tanev put Seattle in front 2-0 while shorthanded after Gourde sent him a pass as he entered the Colorado zone and beat Georgiev over his glove.

"Everything goes to Yanni there", Tanev said. "He worked his butt off to get that puck out in the slot, and I was fortunate enough to have some time and space. When you get a shot off, you hope it goes in, and that was the case there."

Lekhonen made it a 2-1 game, deflecting a point shot by Cale Makar from between the circles.

"Of course it feels good to score, especially to get the first one out of the way", he said. "I felt like in the second period, we came out well."

Just 48 seconds later, Valeri Nicushkin tied the game after Evan Rodrigues passed to him behind two Kraken defenders and after deking Grubauer, he backhanded between the goalie's legs.

"The goals helped obviously, but I think we just simplified", Rodrigues said. "I think we were pressing a little bit, and once we got that first one, we kind of took a deep breath, got the second one quickly, and after that just kept rolling.

"[We] fed off the crowd and started to play a lot more simple."

Toews completed the comeback with 7:01 left in the game, pouncing on a rebound that went off Grubauer's leg and scored on a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle.

"We got a lead. Now we've got to defend it", Toews said about what he was thinking after the goal. "It's been tough to come by a little bit for us after the first two games, and that second half of the game, you'd seen in some of the goals we scored just some of that frustration coming out and excitement coming out."

Gourde stated "Obviously, going up 2-0 against that group over there, it's good. It's really good. We're in a great spot after the first period. We knew they were going to push, but for part of that second period we didn't really have a response.

"We've just got to manage the game a little bit better, know what to do, slow the game down and a little bit and go back to our roots [and] what works for us. When we do that, we're a pretty successful group."