The Tampa Bay Lightning were not the ones who looked like the two-time defending champions of the Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday as the Colorado Avalanche, playing for the first time in nine nights, raced to 2-0 and 3-1 leads in the first period, and finally prevailed 4-3.
The home side punched pucks past otherworldly goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had allowed just 2.27 goals per game in the playoffs this year prior to Game 1 of the climactic best-of-seven series.
“The first 10 minutes, we weren’t our best,” Lightning forward Patrick Maroon said. “We weren’t our best tonight, but I like the finish in our game, though.”
Photo: AFP
Well, except for the actual ending.
Colorado withstood Tampa Bay’s rally to improve to 13-2 as Andre Burakovsky’s goal 1 minute, 23 seconds into overtime sealed the win.
The winner came after a bad turnover by Mikhail Sergachev, whose second-period goal tied it at 3-3.
Photo: AFP
Home teams have won 64 consecutive Cup Final games when leading by two or more goals, ESPN statistics showed.
The previous team to blow a two-goal lead and lose were the New York Rangers against the Vancouver Canucks in 1994.
The Avalanche peppered Vasilevskiy with plenty of pucks in the first period and Ball Arena was rocking, those US$1,000 tickets looking like bargains.
Photo: AFP
The Avalanche scored 65 goals in 14 playoff games to reach the Stanley Cup Finals — their 6.46 scoring average the best in the playoffs in 30 years — and they netted two more goals in the first 10 minutes of the first period.
The two-time defending champions’ pedigree showed up with Ondrej Palat and Sergachev scoring goals less than a minute apart in the second period against Darcy Keumper, who was playing in his first game since May 31 against the Edmonton Oilers, to knot things up.
It stayed that way until 1:23 into overtime.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said that Vasilevskiy was not to blame for the loss, suggesting that nobody in a Lightning sweater played better than his goaltender, who stopped 22 straight shots before Burakovsky’s winner eluded his left skate.
“Vassy, obviously, is a difference maker,” Sergachev said. “He is the best goalie in the world. He’s our best player. So he’s a difference-maker and he can steal games, he can win games by himself. He almost did it tonight.”
Vasilevskiy allowed three goals in a first period for the first time in his career, NHL statistics showed.
The Avalanche’s legs were fast and fresh in their first game in nine days, their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 21 years.
Throw in the altitude and the Avalanche’s attitude, maybe some choppy ice and definitely some uneven play early on from Vasilevskiy, who allowed uncharacteristic goals like the one Valeri Nichushkin put past him in the first period. That puck was the first to go through Vasilevskiy’s legs this entire post-season.
The Avalanche might be the upstarts, but they are not fazed by the prospect of having to dethrone the two-time defending champions to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Their confidence, like the thin air in the Mile High City of Denver, is sky high.
“I mean why not?” said captain Gabriel Landeskog, whose goal less than eight minutes into the game opened the scoring. “We’re in the Stanley Cup Final. We’ve earned this spot. We put a lot of hard work in. Obviously, we have a lot of respect for these guys, but not too much.”
Sergachev shrugged off the loss, suggesting that there were plenty of good things that happened, like coming back to tie it and skate evenly with the fast Avalanche for much of the night.
“It’s the usual stuff. We lost Game 1s before,” Sergachev said. “It’s a series, so we’ll take a day off tomorrow and just chill, clear our heads and practice, go out at Game 2. So nothing changes for us.”
“We’re still a confident group,” he added.
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said that the key in tomorrow’s Game 2 would be not playing catch-up, and avoiding the trap of chasing the quick Avalanche players.
“We’ll look to get off to a better start next game and play with the lead a little bit,” Stamkos said.
“That’s a really good hockey team, they got some exceptional players that can make plays and will look to improve,” he added.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said that his players now have a feel for how fast the Avalanche play and that would help them this weekend.
“They come out pretty strong. We hadn’t seen them in a while, so it was nice to get a feel,” Lightning center Alex Killorn said.
“They had some incredible players that do a lot of good stuff on the ice, but I think we understand exactly what they are,” Killorn added.
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