Commentary: After missed chance to clinch at home, Kraken brace for first Game 7

In any professional sport, the phrase “Game 7” has a regal aura, and the NHL has the well-earned reputation for providing the most intense, fraught and frenetic Game 7s of them all.

The Kraken will get to experience their first such foray on Sunday in Denver, but you can excuse them if they’re not frothing with glee at the prospect. Not yet, anyway.

It’s not that they’re backing down from the challenge, which will be the greatest of their short history. Anyone who has seen the first six games of their first-round playoff series with the Colorado Avalanche — even Seattle’s comparatively underwhelming effort Friday — has learned that backing down is not part of their vocabulary. Or their DNA.

It’s just that the Kraken came to Climate Pledge Arena on Friday hoping for a coronation, and left with a hugely disappointing 4-1 loss. They were riding the wave of two consecutive victories — an exhilarating one for them in overtime, a demoralizing one for Colorado at home — that put them on the brink of a series win. Instead, the Kraken allowed the Avalanche, who were on the verge of suffering the humiliation of going from Stanley Cup champion last year to elimination at the hands of a second-year expansion franchise this year, to seize new life.

“They played desperate tonight,” the Kraken’s Vince Dunn said. “They were good with the puck. And I think we let them come at us a little bit too much. We were not good enough, as a whole, slowing them down on our forecheck. Just a little disconnected. When you give them space and time, they’re going to make good plays.”

And so now we will have the glorious, possibly “gory-ous” spectacle of a loser-out game on Denver’s home ice. The almost-unfathomable intensity of the previous six games will somehow be ramped up to another level. The inevitable accumulation of grudges and grievances over the past week will reach fruition.

To say it will be the biggest game in Kraken history is comically unnecessary. But Game 7s are just as monumental for teams with long, rich histories. For Seattle, it will merely be the first opportunity to start building a storehouse of lore and heroics.

And Dunn, who has been there, said the key is to treat it like any other game. Even if you know with every fabric of your being that it’s not.

“Every play counts, and you just have to be mentally focused,” he said. “I think everyone’s capable of playing against everyone out there. Not get sucked into that atmosphere and another team’s building, and create the momentum and contagious confidence that we need to build.”

The dichotomy of a potential clinch by Seattle and potential elimination for Colorado gave Friday’s game an immediate edge. It was evident from the fans, who began an instant “Let’s Go Kraken” chant when the puck was dropped, and from the players, who mustered every ounce of energy remaining after five hard-fought games. The Avalanche, in particular, played with the sort of desperate fervor you’d expect from a proud champion that wanted redemption.

Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, the marked man whose hit in Game 4 knocked Seattle’s leading scorer, Jared McCann, out of the series, was once again the fulcrum of Kraken fan discontent, with pointed and vociferous booing breaking out every time he touched the puck. But Makar’s presence after serving his one-game suspension in Game 5, provided an undeniable lift for Colorado, which had seemed close to being out of gas and ideas after the back-to-back losses.

It appeared the Avalanche had finally managed to grab their first early lead after giving up the initial goal in all five of the previous games, a major factor in their series deficit. But Bowen Byram’s apparent wrister past Philipp Grubauer with 14:31 left in the first period was negated when the Kraken challenged that Colorado was offside, and the officials agreed after a replay.

It was about as pure and profound momentum switch as you’re ever going to see. The roar when the goal was disallowed was transcendent — and the energized Kraken needed just a minute and 17 seconds to score themselves. For real, this time, as Dunn seized upon a poor clearance by the Avalanche following a Tye Kartye shot to fire the puck past Avalanche goalie Alexandar Georgiev.

It marked the sixth consecutive time the Kraken had jumped to a 1-0 lead, the longest streak in NHL history for a team playing in its first playoff. And Dunn became the 14th Kraken player to score in this series, another major key in the Kraken’s dominance. At that moment you could practically envision the celebration.

But Colorado procured a momentum swing of its own by manufacturing a goal with just 19.4 seconds left in the first period — right after the Kraken failed to convert on a power play that could have given been a truly demoralizing goal from the Avalanche’s standpoint. Instead, it was Mikko Rantanen who rebounded a Devon Toews miss to provide some life for the defending Stanley Cup champions.

The Avalanche’s momentum turned out to be far more lasting than Seattle’s. Colorado added two more goals in the second period to take command of the game, a turnabout that the Kraken couldn’t quell. Not even when Seattle’s Will Borgen and Rantanen tangled in a donnybrook near the Avalanche’s net.

“I know where we’re at, and what our belief is, and I know we’re ready to go,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “They [the Avalanche] deserved it tonight. They were a little bit better than we were, and we couldn’t push our way back into the game. So now we’re going to reset, have a good travel day tomorrow and get after it. It’s all on the line. It’s a seven-game series, right?”

Oh, yes, that’s right. And even though the Kraken wish it wasn’t needed, it’s going to be a glorious thing.