Jared McCann KO’d. But Jordan Eberle’s OT goal sends Kraken into series tie with Avs

Game 4 brought the hits, the anger and the spice to this Kraken-Avalanche series.

It also brought Seattle even with the defending Stanley Cup champs.

The best-of-seven opening-round playoff series is now down to a best of three.

Kraken coach Dave Hakstol had said his team would learn and grow the longer their first-ever Stanley Cup playoffs series continues. They did exactly that Monday night at partying Climate Pledge Arena.

The Kraken grabbed yet another early lead, lost it again, ratcheted up the hitting then won a Game 4 they really needed to when original expansion Kraken charter member Jordan Eberle took a nifty, lofted-saucer pass for Jaden Schwartz, walked in on Colorado goaltender Alexandar Georgiev alone and scooped a shot over his glove into the net unassisted 3 minutes into overtime.

That sent the latest packed house into ear-splitting delirium celebrating the tense, 3-2 win for Seattle.

“We want to prove we belong in this league,” Eberle said.

To that, Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said of his upstart team: “We were pretty comfortable in our own skin tonight.

“We were good tonight. Our physical effort, our mental effort, we were good tonight.

“What a cool atmosphere tonight.”

Schwartz said: “We played them hard. We played desperate. And we needed to be.”

It sent the Kraken to Denver for a pivotal Game 5 Wednesday tied with mighty Colorado at two wins apiece.

The Kraken players mobbed winning goaltender Philipp Grubauer at the right boards, then took a victory lap for their incessantly roaring fans.

“In overtime, just shoot pucks and hope it goes in,” Eberle said after his 21 minutes of ice time in the first home playoff win in Kraken history.

Even with the reviving win, the Kraken are still fuming about leading scorter Jared McCann getting knocked out of the game on a wicked hit by Colorado’s Cade Makar in the first period.

Hakstol said McCann will be out for Game 5 Wednesday, and “going forward,” seemingly for Game 6 Friday back in Seattle, too.

Ryan Donato got some of McCann’s time on top lines after Makar’s hit. Schwartz called it “mixing and matching” without McCann, more ice time for many.

That will continue in Game 5 and, it seems, the rest of the series.

Hakstol called Makar’s hit obviously, majorly late. He made clear his disagreement with officials explaining to him their ruling Makar’s hit was while the puck was in play, hence only a 2-minute minor penalty.

“They felt there was a puck in play, at the battle,” Hakstol said. “Therefore, interference call, downgraded to the 2 minutes.

“I disagree with that, obviously, as I assessed it and looked at it live — and for sure looking it at after, on video. I will say I disagree with that assessment, whether that’s by the refs or by (league headquarters reviewing the play in) Toronto.

“That’s not an accurate description of the play.”

Apparent go-ahead goal nixed

The Kraken briefly thought they might have taken the lead with 9 minutes left in the third period.

Schwartz tried to jam in a close-range poke at the puck after a shot-pass off the back boards. Georgiev made the initial save at the near post with his leg pads. Then, a six-man pile-up in the goal crease. The referee initially stopped play for a faceoff.

A video replay from an overhead angle during the ensuing time out showed the puck crossing the goal line out from the big scrum.

After a video review, the referee announced over the arena’s public-address system: “The puck was covered. There was a whistle. There is no goal.”

The Kraken crowd became unhinged. They chanted, well into play resuming, and repeating what they yelled after Makar’s hit on McCann: “Refs you (AREN’T GOOD)!”

Regulation ended after a wild third period that included two sterling saves by Grubauer with 6 and 4 minutes left on undefended shots from in close.

The three regulation periods ended with the Kraken nearly doubling the Avalanche in shots on goal, 39-21. The Kraken’s 43 total shots on goal were the most in a home game (regular season or playoffs) in the franchise’s two-season history. The team’s plus-21 shot differential Monday was the best for any NHL team in a game this postseason.

Answering the call for increased physicality in Game 4, especially after Makar’s hit on McCann, Seattle had 51 hits to Colorado’s 36 in regulation.

But it was the one on McCann the Kraken are talking about, and will long past this one.

Ignited by a hit

Eight minutes into the game, with the Kraken leading 1-0 on Will Borgen’s early goal, McCann broke in free with the puck on Georgiev. Georgiev made perhaps his best save of the series denying McCann, who then skated on past the goal into the left corner, away from the play.

That’s where Avalanche defenseman Makar planted McCann shoulder and hip first with a wicked hit into the boards, with the puck nowhere near.

The crowd howled and booed. McCann stayed down for well over a minute, assisted on the ice by an athletic trainer. The boos intensified after the referee initially announced a major, 5-minute penalty on Makar, the 2022 NHL Norris Trophy winner as its best defenseman. Then the referee quickly announced it was, in fact, a 2-minute minor for “interference,” a brutal euphemism for Makar’s unnecessary hit.

“It was obviously late,” Schwartz said.

“Tough when you see a guy go down when he’s injured. You obviously never want to see that.

“I feel like the puck might have been out of play for two, three seconds before it happened.”

The NHL Department of Player Safety scheduled a hearing Tuesday with Makar about the hit.

The trainer helped McCann get not to the Kraken bench but the locker room. He didn’t play again. Seattle’s top scorer played only 3 minutes and 38 seconds of a game they needed more scoring to stay in the series.

“As far as a view from the bench...we saw the puck go out of play. And then we saw Jared get hit,” Eberle said.

“That’s all I’m going to say about it.”

Seattle’s ensuring power play, a unit that had been 0 for its first 10 in the series, produced Sprong’s first goal of the playoffs. Sprong’s wrist shot from inside the top of the left faceoff circle beat Georgiev to make it 2-0.

The 17,151 in the glittering arena screamed in celebration as loudly as they had been booing Makar and the referee for the hit that led to the goal.

The fans booed Makar each time he touched the puck after that.

Seattle was in the same spot Monday as last week in Game 2, in Denver. Then, they were up 2-0 in Game 2 with a chance to take a 2-0 series lead on the road. But Colorado scored the final three goals of that game to win and even the series.

Monday, Mikko Rantanen wiped out Seattle’s 2-0 lead by himself.

Paired by coach Jared Bednar on the same line with the Avalanche’s top scorer Nathan MacKinnon after he and MacKinnon each had two goals in Colorado’s 6-4 win in Game 3 Saturday, Rantanen starred. The winger who had 55 goals in 82 regular-season games continually sped to open ice and created dangerous chances. He scored his fourth and fifth goals of the series in the second period, the latter one on the power play.

As in Game 2, Colorado rallied from two goals down early into a 2-2 tie entering the third period.

Kraken start fast — again

Four the fourth time in four games, the Kraken scored first.

Borgen’s slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle beat Georgiev high over his left arm to make it 1-0 Seattle not even 4 minutes into Game 4.

The Kraken became the second team in NHL history to open the scoring in each of their first four Stanley Cup playoff games as a franchise. They joined the 1918 Toronto Arenas.

Seahawks teammates Geno Smith and Tariq Woolen were sitting on the glass, ice-side, wearing Kraken game sweaters with their Seahawks jersey numbers on them.

Tacoma’s Isaiah Thomas, former University Washington and NBA basketball star, also attended the game.

Other Seattle sports royalty in the packed house Monday night included U.S. women’s soccer team star Megan Rapinoe with Storm and U.S. women’s basketball legend Sue Bird.