The Tampa Bay Lightning ruined the Colorado party to stay in search of a third straight Stanley Cup title, beating the Avalanche 3-2 Friday night in the fifth game.
Ondrej Palat scored with 6:22 for the end and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots in front of a stunted crowd hoping to celebrate the Avalanche’s first championship in 21 years. The series is now back in Tampa for Game 6 Sunday night. The Lightning follows the best of the seven series 3-2.
Nikita Kucherov and defender Jan Rutta also scored for the Lightning. Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar had goals for Colorado. Makar’s third-period balance bounced off Erik Cernak’s skating and through Vasilevskiy’s pads to tie the score at 2-2. He set the stage for Palat, whose shot slid between Darcy Kuemper’s pads.
Tampa Bay regrouped after an emotional fourth-quarter loss at home with a goal from overtime by Colorado striker Nazem Kadri. The Lightning felt that the Avalanche could have had too many players on the ice of the winner. Too many players were called up to the ice penalty on Friday in Colorado with 2:43 left. The Lightning put power into play and did so so Colorado couldn’t pull Kuemper until about 30 seconds left. They endured the late avalanche of the avalanche.
That was the Lightning that proved its worth for the championship. They have already recovered from a 3-2 disadvantage in Toronto in the first round and came out of a 2-0 hole against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Completing this win in the comeback series would put them in a completely different category. Only one team has come together to capture a Game 7 in the final after falling 3-1 in a series: the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.
This is a tough Lightning team that shows no signs of slowing down even against a fast Avalanche team and even after all the contests they have registered. Tampa Bay has played 67 postseason games since the start of the first round in 2020. It’s basically an entire extra season. His determination has impressed Lightning coach Jon Cooper. His team has improved to 3-0 this season when facing possible playoffs.
The Avalanche is trying to capture its first title since 2001. Avalanche fans came out with full force both inside the building (a higher level ticket on match day cost about 1,500 dollars) as outside at a nearby vigil party.
Colorado knew it wouldn’t be easy. Makar said the start of the game was “the hardest we’ve had so far.”
The Avalanche is 2 of 2 on their visits to the Stanley Cup final. They also won in 1996, which was their inaugural season in Denver after moving from Quebec.
Shortly after Nichushkin tied 1-1 in the second, Kucherov scored from the post. The power-play goal was with Alex Killorn in the area to hold on, along with JT Compher (holding the stick) and Makar (tripping), making a 4-on-3 situation. Rutta drew some of the energy from the audience with his first playoff goal. It was in a slap from the side that slipped through Kuemper.
It was a good sign for Lightning: the teams that score the first goal watching the elimination in the final are 55-25.
“If we had our choice, we would just write our name around the circle [of the Cup]”, exploded Cooper before the match.