That was a lot closer than it should have been. Colorado defeats Tampa Bay 4-3 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but it really should have been a lot easier for the Avalanche.
The Avalanche started this game on diesel fuel, flying everywhere on the ice. They were first to lose pucks, first to rebounds, fast on breakouts, and even quicker tracking back. And they were physical. Wherever a Tampa Bay player skated, an Avalanche hit him. It was like that for the first period and a half without any notably Tampa Bay response.
Even Andrei Vasilevskiy was bad. With the two squeaky goals he let in from Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichuskin early on in that first period, it would not have surprised me if Jon Cooper was telling Brian Elliott to warm up. Vasilevskiy was playing that bad to start, as was the rest of the Lightning players. Then needed a momentum boost.
Reversely, everyone was on fire for the Avalanche. Everything was going Colorado’s way, shots, hits, takeaways, bad-line change opportunities, odd-man rushes, etc. You name it, the Avalanche were getting the better of it in the first 30 minutes. They even had the referees playing for them during that period of dominance.
A controversial tripping penalty called on Anthony Cirelli late on in the 1st period set up the Avalanche on a 5 vs. 3 powerplay. To nobody’s surprise, the Avalanche scored to the ire of Jon Cooper and the rest of the Lightning team. Artturi Lehkonen tipped in a Gabriel Landeskog shot-pass for the third Avalanche goal of the period to go up 3-1. It was truly a beat down at that point.
It was almost as if the Lightning didn’t know what hit them. I definitely didn’t know what hit the Lightning.
They should have been far more engaged early on as they played the longer of the two Conference Finals series, thus having less days off. If the Lightning were just as lethargic in the 2nd period as they were in the 1st, then the game was going to be an Avalanche blowout.
And the Lightning knew that. As befitting of a two-time defending Stanley Cup champion, they showed their fight and heart and battled back against the Avalanche.
After a few more minutes of Avalanche domination early on in the 2nd, the Lightning started to fight back. They were no longer second best on loose pucks, 50-50 battles, odd man rushes, hits, chances, etc.
Who else but Ondrej Palat and Mikael Sergachev scored two, lightning strike goals, less than two minutes apart, to silence the Ball Arena and tie the game at 3-3. With all their heroics in the New York series and now against Colorado, those two really are trying to make their case for the Conn Smythe Trophy if the Lightning win.
After the Lightning’s quick goals, Colorado became far more reserved and the Lightning turned the final 30 minutes into a close, tight checking, cagey affair. Both teams had chances still, (Nathan MacKinnon had the best; alone in the slot, he rifled the puck against Vasilevskiy’s stomach) but no goals.
The game dwindled down to the final minutes with both teams still not able to score, when Patrick Maroon cleared the puck over the glass with a 1:30 left on the clock, putting Colorado back on the powerplay.
I’m not sure how the Lightning were able to survive the Avalanche’s onslaught in the final 90 seconds of regulation, but they did. Barley.
It would have been really hard to predict the OT winner if it was not for the powerplay. With the Avalanche starting OT on a powerplay, and looking lethal all night on the PP, this game was only ever going to go one way.
A minute or so after the powerplay expired, the Avalanche were still in the Lightning’s zone when J.T. Compher dished a cross ice pass over to Andre Burakovsky, who one-timed it in for a Game 1 victory for the Avs.
Even with the Game 1 win, the Avalanche should have been home and away after the first period. They had the Lightning (and Andrei Vasilevskiy especially) on the ropes, and let them off. If they hope to win the franchise’s first cup since 2001, they can’t allow Tampa Bay to get back into these types of games.
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