INSTANT REACTION: Avs rally past Seattle Kraken in gritty 5-3 win

The Avs hop on a plane for a short road trip to the Evergreen State to take on the Seattle Kraken, their first of three matchups against the team that handed them their first-round exit in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Avs win the first period by score alone. Artturi Lehkonen tips home a Martin Necas shot to put Colorado up 1-0.

The Kraken came out winning the second. Shane Wright and Jordan Eberle, who leads the team in points, score to get the leg up on the Avs. It almost looked like Colorado could come out of this period tied, thanks to a goal from Samuel Girard, but Chandler Stephenson converts on Seattle’s split power play before the period is over to take the Kraken into the second intermission tied.

Then, the Avs have a HUGE third period, getting two from Nathan MacKinnon and one from Brock Nelson (on the power play!) to rally through a gritty game and head back home with a 5-3 win under their belt.

Samuel Girard gets his first goal of the season

Having missed quite a bit of time due to injury, Girard scored his first goal of the season in the second period of tonight’s game, the game-tying goal before Stephenson found Seattle’s lead.

Girard slams home his first of the season! pic.twitter.com/FK5JIwebE8

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) December 17, 2025

A beautifully-placed goal for his first, tallied in his 18th game of the season.

Heading into tonight’s game, Girard was the only skater left on this roster without a goal to his name.

Avs special teams check-in

Heading into tonight’s game, here are the stats:

Seattle:

• PP: 19.1%, 16th
• PK: 67.5%, 32nd

Colorado:

• PP: 15.3%, 25th
• PK: 85.7%, 1st

Good news is that the Avs converted on another power play opportunity since Cale Makar‘s late goal in the team’s loss to Nashville in the shootout.

Bad news is… the PK gets scored on for the second game in a row.

This was turning into a game that the Avalanche couldn’t excuse, especially if they didn’t score on the power play. The league-worst penalty kill against a power play looking to find something, anything, to get their man advantage to work more consistently. They went 0-for-3 at one point in the night, and a really simple wide shot that turns into a bank pass behind the net finds Brock Nelson with a wide-open net (credit to Martin Necas for drawing Ryan Lindgren with him to draw the pressure away).

Teams have begun to telegraph the Avs’ passing sequences on the power play… Are moves like this the super-simple answer?

Avs postgame pod