TAMPA, Fla. – The Colorado Avalanche faces a critical decision in the fold after incumbent Darcy Kuemper withdrew from a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third game of the Stanley Cup final Monday at night.
Kuemper allowed five goals in 22 shots before getting the hook in the middle of the second period. He was replaced by Pavel Francouz, who made nine saves in 10 shots.
The Avalanche leads the series to the best of seven by 2-1. The fourth game is here on Wednesday and Colorado coach Jared Bednar did not put his weight back on Kuemper to start this showdown.
“It wasn’t a good night, you know?” Bednar said when asked about his confidence in Kuemper. “Neither did our team. We won as a team, we lost as a team. Group it with everyone else. It wasn’t as good as we should have been.”
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Pressed further on what will be used to decide the holder of game 4, Bednar added: “The same thing that always comes into play.”
Colorado was flying high before Game 3 after executing an almost perfect plan to defeat Tampa Bay 7-0 in Game 2 on Saturday.
Kuemper only saw 16 shots on that outing, which Avs mastered thoroughly. Game 3 was the first time Colorado has seen a game in this series, and it marked its first road loss of the postseason.
Kuemper earned Francouz recognition as Colorado starter for the Cup final despite a second-round streak against St. Louis. Louis and not having played for more than two weeks before the first game against Lightning. He suffered an upper body injury in the first game of the Western Conference Finals against Edmonton, and Francouz stepped in to save Colorado with four straight wins.
Still, Bednar returned to Kuemper for Game 1. He had been the Colorado starter during a strong regular season (37-12-4, 0.921 savings percentage, 2.54 goals against average). Francouz was a great addition during the regular season (15-5-1, .916 SV%, 2.55 GAA) and has been the best statistical scorer during the playoffs (6-0-0, .906 SV% and 2.86 GAA vs Kuemper at 8-2-0, .901 SV% and 2.44 GAA).
If Kuemper starts Game 4, his teammates believe he can get back in shape.
“All confidence [he can bounce back]”It’s in the National Hockey League for a reason,” said Josh Manson. He will recover. “
As Bednar pointed out, the Avalanche did not play with its usual standard on Monday night. For starters, Colorado were left with a foul on the front, with Andre Burakovsky on the sidelines due to an apparent hand injury that he suffered by blocking a shot in the second game. Nazem Kadri also stood out with a broken thumb.
Valeri Nichushkin appeared on cue near the post, and steered it past the goalie. Lightning coach Jon Cooper took so long to decide whether the play reviewing action was almost resumed, and Bednar objected.
“It was long,” he said of the process. “I don’t know what else to tell you. It was probably three times what we normally have.”
Cooper agreed, pleading at his own post-match press conference for the NHL to make the review process more efficient.
Colorado got their Gabriel Landeskog icebreaker in a power goal. It was Avalanche’s ninth consecutive goal in the series, going back to the end of the first game.
But that’s when Tampa Bay started scoring in groups.
Anthony Cirelli and Ondrej Palat put the Lightning 2-1 up after 20 minutes, the first advantage Tampa Bay had in the Cup final. Nick Paul, who was injured at the end of the first period but returned for the second, took advantage of a gift from Manson at the beginning of this frame to make it 3-1. Paul left the ice right after and did not take another turn.
“The execution under pressure tonight has not been great,” Bednar said. “I think we had some plays so we didn’t make them. I think in some of the entries, they pushed us a little bit. I think this was obviously his best game in the series, and it wasn’t ours. “
Landeskog scored the Avs’ second goal in a later power play for his first multi-goal playoff outing since the 3rd game of the first round from Colorado to Nashville.
Steven Stamkos and Pat Maroon scored four minutes apart to put Tampa Bay at three and end Kuemper’s night. Corey Perry crowned the score with a power-play score.
It was a bad night for Colorado, but that doesn’t mean the series went wrong.
“It’s the Stanley Cup final. We’re not expecting a sweep,” Nathan MacKinnon said. “It’s fun. It’s amazing. Good or bad, we won’t change our place with anyone. We’ve waited a long time for that. We’re playing the best right now. We’re playing the best. Team, they’ve won back [Stanley Cups]. We knew they were too proud to leave. We still feel good. We feel good about our team from the top down. “
Before playing against Lightning, Avalanche repeatedly said they hoped to one day emulate their status as repeated rivals. Right now, Colorado can grab a Lightning page on how to recover from disappointment.
“It simply came to our notice then [every] tough game. I think that’s our mindset, “MacKinnon said.” Even in the third [period], we played very well. We weren’t going to give up. Obviously [we didn’t score] goals or whatever, but I think that’s what we’ve learned. Like Tampa, they didn’t hang on to losing to us in Game 2, and we won’t do the same tonight. “