Three ways the Kraken can even their Stanley Cup playoff series with the Avs in Game 4

Ryan Donato knows one trait his Kraken have developed over their second-ever NHL season.

“When things get tough,” the 27-year-old center said Sunday morning, “we come together.”

Seattle cannot afford for things to get much tougher than they are right now.

Since winning Game 1 of this Stanley Cup playoffs series then stunning Colorado with a 2-0 lead early in Game 2 Thursday in Denver, the Kraken have allowed the defending Cup-champion Avalanche to outscore them 9-4 and win two games.

In Game 3 Saturday, the first NHL postseason game in Seattle with a bonkers crowd at Climate Pledge Arena, Colorado turned another 1-0 Kraken lead into a 3-1 edge. The Avs also responded to Seattle tying Saturday’s game at 3 in the second period by scoring the next three goals.

That’s why Colorado has a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series.

That has the Kraken facing basically a must-win Game 4 at home Monday night (7 p.m., TBS, ROOT Sports). Seattle cannot lose Monday, be down 3-1 going back to Denver for Game 5 Wednesday and have realistic hopes of winning the series. Two of the final three games would be in Denver.

“We feel like we’ve played great all three games,” Seattle left winger Jared McCann (one assist, six shots, minus-1 in the series) said on an online Zoom call Sunday, a players day off for all but athletic-trainer treatments.

“Obviously, there’s been times during the games that we falter and give up Grade As (top-quality scoring chances and goals). But Gruby’s playing well for us.

“Gruby” is goaltender Philipp Grubauer. He’s sixth in the league’s postseason with a .917 save percentage, stopping 100 of 109 shots.

“We’ve got to be better in front of him,” McCann said.

Momentum is huge

This series has featured sudden, dramatic momentum swings. They have had the Kraken go from seemingly in control to frantic and behind faster than you can say “Lord Stanley’s cup.”

Seattle has scored first in each game of the series. In Game 1, the Kraken rode that early edge and Grubauer’s nearly perfect night in goal to a 3-1 win that surprised the champs.

In Game 2, the upstart Kraken took a 2-0 lead. Colorado was in danger of going down 0-2 in the series heading to raucous Climate Pledge Arena. Then the Kraken allowed three unanswered goals. The Avalanche won 3-2. The first two of those three goals came 48 seconds apart to tie the game. It was as if the Rocky Mountains themselves exhaled.

In Game 3 Saturday in Seattle, the Kraken used the rave-like energy from their roaring fans to take another early lead, on Jaden Schwartz’s goal 6 minutes in.

But then the Kraken played poorly from late in the first period until late in the second. They consistently gave the puck away in the neutral zone on turnovers. Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar skate like lightning strikes. They took those giveaways and turned them into those “Grade As” McCann talked about.

MacKinnon, Rantanen, and Makar scored five of Colorado’s six goals Saturday.

A 111-point man for the Avs in the regular season, MacKinnon zoomed free past every other skater on the ice for a breakaway goal past Grubauer late in the first period of Game 3. That came on a 4 on 4, when Seattle’s point man pinched in too deep. That left the middle of the ice empty of anyone but MacKinnon. Colorado led 2-1.

After the Kraken rallied to tie Saturday’s game at 3 with two goals in 19 seconds, Colorado scored twice in under 90 seconds to retake command 5-3.

“We have to be able to change and control momentum,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said Sunday. “When you look at the quick momentum swings in this series, we’ve been on the wrong end of that a couple of times.

“Realizing that, having the presence of mind to control some of that momentum a little bit is a part of the area where we have to grow as a team. There were some areas of (Saturday) night’s game that got away from us. We’ve got to be able to grow from that.

“We have to take this opportunity to grow and be better here in Game 4.”

Kraken’s paths to rebound

How can the Kraken be better in Game 4?:

• Press to score less, play more defense.

• Quit allowing the flying, free-wheeling Avalanche to fly and free-wheel.

• Cheat more...on faceoffs

“We think we could do a better job kind of managing their scoring chances,” McCann said. “Obviously, they are going to have pushes. They have a great team, and a lot of great, skill players who can make plays in tight areas.

“I think sometimes we need to recognize who we are out against. And if it means just playing defense, getting the puck deep (in the offensive zone) and maybe being a little bit harder on their top guys, it will help us out a lot more.

“We can’t be worried about scoring every shift. You’ve got to play defense sometimes.”

McCann said that three times Sunday.

Colorado scored multiple times in Game 3, and in this series, immediately off winning faceoffs in Seattle’s end.

Players taking faceoffs are supposed to stay still until the linesman drops the puck. If a guy “cheats,” moves into the opposing player of tries to steal the dropping puck by moving his stick to it before it hits the ice at the faceoff dot, the linesman is by rule to throw the offending player out of the faceoff, to be replaced by a teammate.

“Honestly, if I’m being blunt, I think we’ve got to be smart and cheat a little bit more,” Hakstol said. “Colorado is doing a better job of that than us, getting away with it in the dot. That gives them the advantage.

“So we have to do a better job of that. If that’s going to be allowed in the face-off dot, then we’ve got to be right there with them.”

Power play woes

It’s clear the Avalanche have the quickness and skill advantages with the puck when playing five on five. Colorado has scored nine of their 10 goals in the series at even strength. The other goal while short-handed in the second period Saturday that erased Seattle’s early 1-0 lead.

So the Kraken must take full advantage of any power-play opportunities they get.

Those usually are scarce in the tightly-played, tightly-called playoffs. Yet Seattle had the man advantage six times on six minor penalties on the Avalanche in Game 3, one more power play than the Kraken had in the first two games combined.

Seattle went 0 for their first 5 on the power play Saturday.

They were 0 for 10 in the series while a man up, until Schwartz scored off a faceoff with a man advantage in garbage time. His shot with 40 seconds left made it 6-4 to end Game 3.

McCann said it was the loudest he’s heard Climate Pledge Arena in his team’s two seasons playing in the glittering palace in Seattle Center.

“It was amazing,” he said. “It gave us energy.”

Soon after Seattle’s two goals in 19 seconds tied it late in the second period of Game 3, the Avalanche then took a penalty for too many men on the ice — playing the puck while more than five players were on the ice during a line change. That gave Seattle a power play, and what should have been a prime chance to ride the crowd’s roars into the lead.

This was the Kraken’s ensuing man advantage, starting with 2:30 left in the second period:

Seattle chose to dump the puck into the offensive zone and chase after it more than on earlier, fruitless power plays. After the first dump-in, Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen tried to dig at the puck in the deep right corner. An attempted pass back to open Vince Dunn at the right point bounced over his stick, across the blue line to center ice. All the Kraken players then had to skate back out of the zone to get back onside.

Beniers dumped the puck back in. Justin Schultz and Yanni Gourde chased after it. Schultz lost the puck at the blue line back out of the attack zone. More power-play time lost.

Another Kraken dump in became an immediate Avalanche dump back out. Then Seattle’s Jordan Eberle dumped the puck back in the zone. Beniers and Schwartz worked in the corner to dig the puck free. The Avalanche kept pressuring them outside, and forced another bad pass back outside the zone.

Seattle dumped the puck back in the zone one final time. Colorado easily sent it right back out to the neutral zone across center ice.

Two minutes, no shots. Opportunity, and Game 3, lost.

It was one of multiple power plays this series the Kraken failed to get even a shot on net, let alone score.

“We’ve got to get pucks at the net. We’ve got to out-number them at the net,” McCann said. “They are doing a good job of pressuring up the walls, taking away the side of the net there.

“We’ve got to do a good job of getting pucks to the net. Get guys in front of him, make it hard for him to see the puck.

“Sometimes less is more, keeping it simple is better.”

Morgan Geekie’s status

Hakstol said he didn’t know if Morgan Geekie can play in Game 4. He missed Game 3 after his wife had gone into labor.

The 6-foot-3 center scored nine goals during the regular season.

Jesper Froden played in his first NHL postseason game, logging 4 minutes replacing the 24-year-old Geekie Saturday night.