Arturi Lekhonen scored twice as the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Seattle Kraken 4-1 in Game 6 of their Western Conference First Round series at Climate Pledge Arena.

The series is tied 3-3 with Game 7 set for Sunday in Denver.

"Gutsy road win", said Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen. "It's just one game now, winner takes all, and I think our group, hopefully the experience is going to help us."

Rantanen had a goal and an assist, Devon Toews had three assists and Cale Makar had two assists. Alexandar Georgiev made 22 saves for the Avalanche.

"The intensity level we had right from the start, I think we played simple and we were skating. We were relentless", Rantanen said. "That was the first time we did it for three periods.

"We were just relentless on the puck and off the puck, support everywhere on the ice."

Vince Dunn scored Seattle's only goal and Philipp Grubauer stopped 35 shots.

The forecheck were keys to the Kraken's Game 4 and Game 5 victories but they spent most of this game chasing the puck.

"We let them come at us a little bit too much", Dunn said. "We were not good enough as a whole slowing them down on our forecheck, just a little disconnected, and when you give them space and time, they are going to make plays."

Avalanche score four unanswered goals to upend Kraken

The Avalanche looked to have opened the scoring when Bowen Byram beat Grubauer off the rush, but Seattle challenged for offsides and video replay showed Evan Rodrigues was indeed ahead of the puck.

Dunn then gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with 4:12 left in the first period, skating into a one-timer that he fired from the left faceoff circle that went in off of Georgiev's blocker. Seattle has scored first in all six games of the series.

Rantanen tapped in the goal that made it 1-1 with 20 seconds left in the opening period. Grubauer saved a Toews one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle and Rodrigues sent the rebound to Rantanen from the top of the crease.

"It was a little bit of a chaotic period, but we were in a good spot with a one-goal lead and that's a tough goal to give up right at the end", said Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol.

"We got caught on a back check and Rantanen beat our guy coming off the bench and beat him to the net."

Erik Johnson put the Avalanche in front with a shot between the top of the circles that deflected off the stick of Seattle forward Eeli Tolvanen in the high slot. The goal was Johnson's first of the season after going 63 games during the regular season without scoring.

"I'm at a point in my career i'm trying to do whatever I can to help the team win, if that's put a goal in the net, if that's blocking a shot, if that's making a big hit, you got to adapt your game and evolve", he said.

"[Scoring] was once a thing I was a little bit more known for, but not so much anymore, but help the team anyway and to chip in a goal feels good."

Lekhonen made it a 3-1 game, deflecting Toews' slap pass past Grubauer's right pad from the top of the crease.

Colorado outshot Seattle 14-4 in the second period.

"I thought we played a lot on our heels tonight", said Kraken forward Jordan Eberle. "We didn't really play with pressure, and obviously a good team like that, they play with desperation, they are going to come out you in waves.

"We kept trying to find a spark and couldn't. We played a little too timid and you have a team on the brink, they are going to play with a lot of desperation."

Makar, who was suspended for Game 5 following an interference penalty that knocked Jared McCann out of this series and possibly the rest of the playoffs, picked up an assist on Lekhonen's first goal. 

He recorded a second assist when Lekhonen scored into an empty net with 12 seconds left for the 4-1 final.

"I feel like anytime we've had adversity this year, we've kind of just looked it in the face and said we're going to just take it one step at a time and go right at it", Makar said.

"Huge character win for us and hopefully it gave a lot of guys confidence."