*Photo from Sporting News*
Colorado leads series 2-0
Looking at the final score, you'd think it was the first drive of a football game. Valeri Nichushkin scored twice, Cale Makar potted two goals, and the Colorado Avalanche routed the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 7-0 shutout victory on Saturday night in Denver.
So far this series, it's been all Avalanche, taking a 2-0 series lead in dominating fashion in game two. They became the 3rd team in NHL history to score at least 3 goals in the first period of the first two cup final games, joining the 1936 Detroit Red Wings and the 1981 New York Islanders.
Simply put, the Avalanche are a machine. They've won 7 straight playoff games, having not lost since game 5 of the second round against the St. Louis Blues, and even then, they were one win from advancing. Nichushkin and Makar each scored twice for the Avalanche, leading the offensive attack.
Colorado defenseman Josh Manson said of the key to beat Tampa that "The speed is what we like to stick to and we think that's how we have to beat them. They're a patient team. They have good structure below the top of the circles, so we just have to keep playing like that."
Opening the scoring for the Avalanche was Nichushkin, who scored a power play goal 2:54 into the game to make it 1-0 Avalanche, his 7th goal of the playoffs. 5:01 later, Manson got on the board, doubling the lead to 2-0 on his 3rd goal in the postseason. Andre Burakovsky then scored to make it 3-0 Avalanche after one period.
In the second period, it was Nichushkin who got on the board again, adding his second goal of the night 4:51 into the second, assisted by Mikko Rantanen on his 8th goal of the playoffs. Scoring his second goal of the playoffs 16:26 into the second was Darren Helm, who made it a 5-0 game thanks to an assist from Logan O'Connor.
While shorthanded early in the 3rd period, Cale Makar scored 2:04 into the 3rd period, assisted by Andrew Cogliano on his 6th goal of the playoffs, making it a 6-0 game. On the power play 9:49 into the 3rd period, Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon assisted on Makar's second goal of the night, making it a 7-0 game at that point.
Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said of the game that "I thought our guys played hard right from the drop off the puck. Highly committed on the defensive side of things. Dangerous offensively. We were tenacious on pucks, relentless puck pursuit. And that was throughout our entire lineup."
Picking up the shutout in net for the Avalanche was Darcy Kuemper, who posted his first shutout of the playoffs and second playoff shutout of his career. In this shutout, Kuemper stopped all of the 16 shots he faced, not being tested by the Lightning very much in this one.
For the Lightning, Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up his second straight loss of the series, and he got hung out to dry by the Avalanche. In the loss, Vasilevskiy was only able to save 23 out of the 30 shots on goal the Avalanche had, recording a .767 save percentage in the loss.
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said that "People are going to be watching this game tonight and probably think the series is over, but our group, we're a very resilient group. We get to go back home. We were in this position last round. So, whether it's 1-0 or 7-0 or 10-0, it's a loss in the playoffs and you've got to move on. We've got to man up as a team and as a person. You know, our team is going to do that. Let's get back home in front of our fans, and let's see what we're made of."
Up next, game 3 of the series is on Monday night, as the series shifts to Tampa Bay for games 3 and 4. There, the Avalanche will look to take a commanding 3-0 series lead, while the Lightning seek to get back in the series with a win.
Comments
Post a Comment