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Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Stanley Cup Final after all.
Just when it looked like the Colorado Avalanche—7-0 winners in a jaw-dropping Game 2 rout Saturday—would surely skate the trophy into a Rocky Mountain sunset, things changed.
Or, more specifically, the Tampa Bay Lightning changed them.
Buoyed by a raucous Amalie Arena crowd, the two-time defending champions shook off a first-period gut punch and scored six of the last seven goals in a 6-2 win to make the Avalanche’s title romp seem a trifle less predetermined.
The B/R hockey team was in the building for the momentum-shifting contest and put together a list of pertinent takeaways as the teams prep for Wednesday’s pivotal return.
Scroll through to see what we came up with and give a thought or two of your own in the comments.
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Andrew Bershaw /Icon_Sportswire
It was early. And the Lightning were reeling.
So when Colorado’s Valeri Nichushkin beat Vasilevskiy with a softie exactly five minutes after Monday night’s opening faceoff, it didn’t look good for those making threepeat wagers.
But it didn’t last.
Rather than accepting a 1-0 deficit on face value, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper chose to review the call based on a claim that Avalanche defenseman Bo Byram failed to keep the puck in the attacking zone at the blue line, thus warranting an offside call.
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A prolonged review had the 19,000-plus on edge but the refs ultimately got it correct, declaring that the puck had slipped out by inches and pulling the tally off the scoreboard.
It was particularly important barely three minutes later when Landeskog’s goal would have given the visitors a 2-0 lead at 8:19, but the Lightning successfully weathered the storm and took the lead soon after when Anthony Cirelli and Palat scored at 13:01 and 14:54.
They never trailed again. And if the champs go ahead and win Game 4 to get back in the series, Jared Bednar will see it in his nightmares.
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There’s a reason these guys have their names on the Stanley Cup.
Twice.
After two games in which they were outshot by 29 and outscored by eight, the stars largely responsible for two boat parades in the nearby Hillsborough River—namely Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Ondrej Palat, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Nikita Kucherov—showed up.
Each of the four skaters contributed two points apiece, accounting for two goals and six assists altogether, while their perpetually heroic Russian goaltender stopped all but two of 39 shots in rebounding from a career-worst performance in Game 2.
A goal from Gabe Landeskog came through a goal-crease pileup in the initial half of the first period and gave Colorado a 1-0 lead.
But Vasilevskiy was lights-out on anything he got a good look at from then on and repeatedly flummoxed the Avalanche while his teammates scored five times on 21 shots against Darcy Kuemper and prompted a goalie change in the second.
If he outplays the Colorado tandem to that level, the needle swings dramatically.
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Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
It’s the price you pay as two-time defending champions.
The Lightning have played a lot of hockey over the last three postseasons—64 games before Monday night, to be exact—so it’s hardly a shock to hear they’re battling injuries.
But at some point, it might just matter.
Center Brayden Point was off a month between the end of the opening round and Wednesday’s opener with Colorado and played nearly 37 minutes across Games 1 and 2, but he was unavailable for Game 3 with the same lower-body injury issues.
Also spending time in the training room is winger Nick Paul, who was dinged up in the first period and left the ice before returning to score early in the second and earned the game’s third star while logging two shots and a takeaway in 13:43 of ice time.
Obviously, Tampa Bay wouldn’t be where it is again without a full complement of depth players to fill the holes, but the longer this duel goes the more impact the nicks will have.
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It’s Hockey 101.
Staying out of the penalty box maximizes a team’s chances to win.
But when you’re facing a juggernaut like the Avalanche, it’s full-on mandatory.
A skilled, fast team, Colorado already had the league’s seventh-best power play during the regular season with a 24 percent success rate, but it’s gotten downright dangerous in the playoffs with the Avalanche converting 32.7 percent of their chances.
They’d already ramped it up to 42.9 percent across the first two games of the series and both of their Monday night goals came while a man up, too. So if it seems like every time Tampa Bay takes a penalty the puck quickly winds up in the net, it’s not entirely incorrect.
Bottom line is it can’t continue. Because if it does, even Vasilevskiy can’t save them.
“You got to give them credit,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said before Game 3.
“They really jump out of the gate quick, but, as I told you, they did it in the regular season against us too. … So, simplify our game and please don’t take a penalty.”
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