DENVER – Ondrej Palat broke the deadlock with 6:22 at the end of the third period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning kept alive their three-game bid with a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of the final. from the Stanley Cup at the Ball Arena on Friday. .
Palat’s stopwatch from between the circles rang between Darcy Kuemper’s pads before sliding over the goal line.
Jan Rutta and Nikita Kucherov scored, Corey Perry and Mikhail Sergachev made two assists each, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 stops for two-time defending champion Lightning.
“You’re in the series, the Cup is in the building, you’re in a great environment for the home team,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “And how do you demonstrate the skill of the game? You do everything they just do. You get the lead, defenses, penalty kills, marks with power play, and when you need the big goal in the end, you get it.”
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Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar each had a goal and an assist, and Kuemper made 26 stops for the Avalanche, who advanced 3-2 in the series to the best of 7 with another chance to close it out in the match 6 in Tampa Bay on Sunday. .
“It’s not supposed to be easy nor will it be,” Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “We knew that going into that, we knew he would come tonight … Vasilevskiy had another good night. We felt good with our game, we tied it in the third and then obviously they created a slot shot there. which extends through “Kuemps.”
“So that’s what it is. Little memory in the playoffs, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Video: TBL @ COL, Gm5: Palat gives advantage to Lightning 3-2 to 3rd
The Lightning are trying to become the second team in NHL history to go from losing 3-1 to winning a Cup final to the best of 7 (1-35). The Toronto Maple Leafs returned 3-0 against the Detroit Red Wings in the 1942 final. Tampa Bay fell 3-2 against Toronto in the first round of the Eastern Conference and 2-0 against the New York Rangers in the end of the conference.
“We extended the season and that’s what we wanted to do,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “We were talking about one game at a time. It was an effort, but we found the way. Great effort and now we have to do it again.”
Rutta gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with 4:37 left in the first period of the race with a slap from the right circle that went under Kuemper’s glove and over his left pill. It was the Stanley Cup Playoff’s first goal in 18 games since the third game of the Cup final against the Montreal Canadiens last season.
“It was just a bit of articulation,” Kuemper said. “It happens. You do things the right way, that’s all you can do. Obviously, you don’t want to let any goals in. But it happens.”
Nichushkin tied 1-1 on a rebound at 5:07 of the second period. Makar’s initial shot from the top of the right circle hit Vasilevskiy in the left shoulder and fell to the top of the fold on his right. Nichushkin was there to pull the record back into the net for his fourth goal of the final.
Video: TBL @ COL, Gm5: Kucherov once 4-in-3 PPG out of publication
Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead with Kucherov’s power goal 4-on-3 at 8:10 of the second. After defender Josh Manson blocked Stamkos and Kucherov’s shots early in the power play, Stamkos simulated a shot from the left circle before feeding Kucherov for a while from the high slot that passed through Perry’s screen. in front and Kuemper passed by the side of the post. .
The Lightning were 1 of 16 in the power play of the series before that.
“I just knew that if they could pretend to bomb, they would give a lane to make a play and obviously they would give‘ Kuch ’and he wasn’t wrong,” Stamkos said. “But it was a great moment in the game. You get a 4-on-3, you want to capitalize and we can also get a little bit of confidence out of it.”
Makar equalized 2-2 at 2:31 of the third when the rebound of his shot from the right circle deflected off the skate of Lightning defender Erik Cernak in front. But Tampa Bay was not discouraged by the unfortunate breakup.
“It got us off our skate and into the net,” Perry said. “The rebounds happen, but at the same time, you have to create your own rebounds and it was only a couple of minutes later or whatever where we found a way to put one at the bottom of the net.”
The Lightning had patience moving the puck into the avalanche zone before Palat could slip back into the open ice between the circles when Makar and Nichushkin chased defender Victor Hedman to the bottom of the left circle. Hedman fed Palat quickly for his best 11th lightning of this postseason.
“I was just trying to open up and lose myself a little bit, and I saw‘ Heddy ’and he saw me, so it was easy for me,” Palat said. “I’m only trying to do it once and luckily it came in.”
NOTES: Palat scored the 12th goal of his career in the NHL, winning the 12th goal of the playoffs, adding to his Lightning record. Joe Pavelski of the Dallas Stars (14) and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins (13) are the only active players with more. … Avalanche striker Andre Burakovsky missed a third consecutive game since he was hit in the hand with the disc in Game 2.… Lightning center Brayden Point missed a third consecutive game with a side injury lower body.