Nearly halfway through the second period of a tied game five between the Colorado Avalanche and Seattle Kraken, Nathan MacKinnon was involved for a critical play that impacted the game, but in a positive way for the Kraken.

With the puck in the offensive zone and trying to beat a defender, MacKinnon gets tripped and upon realizing that there would be no penalty on the play, MacKinnon lost his temper on the referee.





While slamming his stick into the boards and screaming at the referees though, the Kraken were able to take the puck up the ice and capitalize on an odd-man situation. It allowed the Kraken to take a 2-1 lead, a critical goal in the low scoring affair last night. It's very important to note that MacKinnon, the center on the play, would have very likely been able to stop the trailer had he just back checked.

Regardless of the trip, the loss has now placed the reigning Stanley Cup Champions on the brink of elimination to an expansion team in their first playoff appearance. It's an underdog story of a cohesive team better than the sum of their parts, similar to Vegas in their inaugural year. We'll see if the Kraken can truly begin a Cinderella story, or if the Cup champion Avalanche still have more fight in them.