The Colorado Avalanche close the 2025-26 regular season on Thursday night when they host the Seattle Kraken at Ball Arena, with puck drop set for 8 p.m. MT. The game comes on Fan Appreciation Night, and it is the third and final meeting between the teams this season.
Colorado has already beaten Seattle twice, 5-3 in Seattle on Dec. 16 and 5-1 on March 12 in Washington. That edge matters because the Avalanche enter the finale after a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, a game in which Martin Necas recorded his 100th point of the season, Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 30 of 31 shots and Cale Makar returned to the lineup with three assists.
The Calgary game was a reminder of how much scoring depth Colorado is carrying into the finish. Blake Coleman opened the scoring at 7:22 of the second period, Artturi Lehkonen tied it at 11:25 with his 21st goal of the season, Gabriel Landeskog put Colorado ahead 2-1 at 15:07 of the third period with his 14th, and Nathan MacKinnon sealed it with an empty-net goal at 19:43 for his 53rd of the season. MacKinnon leads the NHL with 53 goals and ranks third in points with 127 and assists with 74. Makar is tied for third among NHL defensemen with 78 points, fifth with 58 assists and sixth with 20 goals, while Necas is tied for seventh in the league with 100 points.
The Avalanche’s numbers around the net have been just as strong. Colorado has posted an NHL-best.908 team save percentage this season, and its four third-period goals allowed in April are tied for the second fewest in the league. It has also built an NHL-best plus-35 first-period goal differential, a mark that helps explain why the Kraken will have to start fast to avoid spending the night chasing the game.
Seattle arrives after a 4-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday, a night when Shane Wright opened the scoring at 2:24 of the second period before Vegas pulled away. The Kraken’s offense has been led by Jordan Eberle, who has 55 points, 26 goals and 29 assists, Bobby McMann, who leads the team with 29 goals and has 46 points, and Chandler Stephenson, who is tied for the team lead with 33 assists while sitting third in points with 49 and fifth in goals with 16.
The matchup has been one-sided for Colorado for a while. The Avalanche are 10-3-1 in 14 previous regular-season games against Seattle, and the teams have met once in the playoffs. Thursday is the last regular-season game on Colorado’s calendar, so the stakes are mostly about rhythm, health and the chance to finish the season with another clean result against a familiar opponent.