Kraken, Avalanche ready to 'lay it all on the line' in Game 7

Seattle looking to knock off defending champs, who have overcome own adversity

DENVER -- It's Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round, and one of two things is going to happen at Ball Arena on Sunday (9:30 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, TVAS, ALT, ROOT-NW).

The Seattle Kraken are going to become the first team in NHL history to earn their first Stanley Cup Playoff series win by eliminating the defending champions, or the Colorado Avalanche are going to overcome adversity yet again to keep their repeat hopes alive.

The winner will play the Dallas Stars in the second round.

This series has been back and forth. Seattle took a 1-0 lead, Colorado took a 2-1 lead, Seattle took a 3-2 lead, and now here we are. At 5-on-5, the goals are dead even, 12-12.

"It's been a tight series, and it comes down to one game to move on," Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz said. "There's really nothing like it for an athlete when it comes down to something like this. Easiest games to get up for."

Each team has reason to be confident.

After finishing 30th in the NHL in their inaugural season, the Kraken earned 100 points and the first wild card in the West in their second season as an expansion team.

They entered this series as underdogs, feeling underrated, underappreciated, and they still feel that way even though this series will go down as their coming out party, win or lose.

"The expectations inside of the dressing room have been most important," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "There hasn't been a lot of expectations of the group from the outside world, and that certainly hasn't changed throughout this series."

If anyone is still sleeping on Seattle, it's time to wake up.

The Kraken have been the better team for large portions of this series. They've had 14 different goal-scorers, showcasing the depth that drove them in the regular season. They've scored first in each game and won two of the three games in Denver.

They have several players with Game 7 experience too.

"One team's season's going to end, but I mean, I don't think this team feels much pressure," Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson said. "We got to this point because we believe in ourselves. We should walk in tomorrow and really believe we can get it done."

Why?

"I think when we're on our toes, we can go up against anyone," Larsson said. "We have shown that this series. Yeah, tomorrow, we're just going to lay it all on the line."

The Avalanche are not the same team they were last season. For a variety of reasons -- departures, injuries, forward Valeri Nichushkin leaving the team before Game 3 for personal reasons -- they are nowhere near as deep.

But they were four points out of a playoff spot Jan. 12 and fought back to win the Central Division, and they fought back in Game 6 on Friday. Down 3-2 in the series, down 1-0 in the game, they came back and won 4-1 to force Game 7.

"We gave ourselves a chance, finally played our game," Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews said. "We thought we had a really good game last night, and in front of our fans now, we get a chance to move on."

The Avalanche have the edge in elite talent with defenseman Cale Makar and forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. After Rantanen scored his sixth goal of the series to tie it 1-1 with 19.4 seconds left in the first period of Game 6, they tilted the ice.

It was their best performance of the series.

"It starts with our skating," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "In the games that we've lost in the series, we have not skated well. We looked like we're the slower team. They had more jump. They were more assertive. They were on their toes. We were reacting."

Bednar said the Avalanche hesitated too much earlier in the series and had to get back to instinctual hockey, not overthinking, not being too cautious. All they have to do in Game 7, he said, is repeat what they did in Game 6.

"We've got to skate and use our legs, and that's in all areas -- breakouts, forecheck, neutral zone, the whole deal -- and challenge their defenders to have to defend us instead of wanting to get rid of the puck," Bednar said. "And when we play that way, play with a little of confidence, a little bit of swagger, things generally go in our direction."

The Kraken have had many playoff firsts over the past two weeks. Now comes their first Game 7. Imagine the excitement in Seattle if they upset the Avalanche for their first Game 7 win.

"We've got a really good chance tomorrow to do something special," Schwartz said.

A Colorado win will mean more relief than excitement. But at the very least, the Avalanche want no regrets.

"We go play like [in Game 6], I feel like we give ourselves a good chance to win," Bednar said. "Love to see us do that, because, you know, otherwise, I'd look back on the series and go, 'We didn't do enough early.' You have to expect to have to play your best hockey in order to win this time of year."