The Stanley Cup was in the building and just waiting to be paraded by the ice.
Pack it. Return to Tampa Bay.
The tough 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 shrill crowd in hopes of celebrating the Avalanche’s first championship in 21 years.
“That’s what good teams do: you find a way,” Lightning striker Corey Perry said. “Keep connecting. That’s fun. That’s what hockey is all about, different guys expanding at different times.”
Game 6 is Sunday night in Tampa. The Lightning follows the best of the seven series 3-2.
“Listen, this is a big challenge for us,” Lightning striker Pat Maroon said. “It’s also an exciting challenge. You have to be excited about this challenge and accept it.”
The Cup was all brilliant and ready for the moment, almost signaling to the Avalanche from the side. He returns to the road for the Avalanche, where he has so far led 8-1 in his playoff career.
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Lightning avalanche with Palat winner in match 5 of the Stanley Cup final
Tampa Bay beats Colorado 3-2 and is now ahead of the Stanley Cup final series to the best of seven by 3-2.
“In our room we believe we can win every game we play,” defender Devon Toews said. “We feel like we had a decent game tonight, a pretty good game. Obviously, tonight isn’t enough.”
Nikita Kucherov and defender Jan Rutta also scored for the Lightning. Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar had goals for Colorado. Makar’s third-period account bounced off Erik Cernak’s skate and through Vasilevskiy’s pads to tie at 2.
This set the stage for Palat, whose shot slid between Darcy Kuemper’s pads. It was the 16th playoff goal of Palat’s career, only behind Brayden Point (18) in franchise history.
“I thought I was playing well, I slipped,” Kuemper said. “I just found a little hole.”
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The Avalanche advanced 3-1 in the series to the Stanley Cup final, but not without controversy.
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.
A similar scenario of too many players on the ice unfolded on Friday, and this time it was called. With 2:43 left, the Lightning went into power play and got Colorado unable to pull Kuemper until the final moments. They endured the late avalanche of the avalanche.
Only lightning shows its value 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 losing 3-1 in a series: the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.
This is a tough Lightning team that shows no signs of slowing down in front of 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, almost 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 mental strength you have to have to play in the environment they just play in, there’s a reason these guys have a couple of rings on their fingers,” Cooper said.
The Avalanche has been trying to capture its first title since 2001. Avalanche fans were out in full force, both inside the building (a higher level ticket on game day cost about $ 1,500) as outside at a nearby surveillance party.
“It’s not supposed to be easy or it won’t be,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “We knew that was going into that. We knew it would come tonight … Little memory in the playoffs and that’s what we’re going to do.”
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 at 1 each in the second, Kucherov scored a goal 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.
Bednar was not exactly excited about the call to Makar.
“There was no intention there. I don’t even think I was checking that guy out,” Bednar said. “Look at me like I stumbled upon a stick. It’s hard.”
Kuemper finished with 26 stops.
“It was okay,” Bednar said. “I’d love to see him get the first one, obviously.”
The first would be Rutta’s score less than five minutes from the start of the match that drew some of the audience’s energy. It was his first goal in the playoffs.
“We’ve been here. We’ve been 3-1? No,” Cooper said. “But we’ve been in those situations where we know the feeling of being in an elimination game.”