DENVER — The only way the Lightning will see the Avalanche again after Tuesday night will be in the Stanley Cup final, but the two teams have gotten familiar with each other over the past week.
The second meeting in six days netted the same outcome, but a much tighter game as the Lightning beat Colorado 4-3 in a shootout. Tampa Bay prevailed 5-0 at home on Thursday.
There was a postseason atmosphere Tuesday night at Ball Arena, and the result was another physical, tightly contested, one-goal game. Four of last season’s Stanley Cup final games were decided by one goal.
Here are three things we learned from the Lightning’s latest triumph:
Colorado tried to rattle Vasilevskiy
In last week’s loss to the Lightning, the Avalanche were frustrated by Andrei Vasilevskiy, who recorded his first shutout of the season. But they also believed they didn’t make it difficult enough for Vasilevskiy.
Colorado went into Tuesday’s rematch focused on getting in Vasilevskiy’s kitchen, making him uncomfortable and taking his line of sight away, something that Colorado coach Jared Bednar said before the game is necessary to have a chance against the Lightning goaltender. Colorado executed right away, as Valeri Nishushkin’s screen in front left Vasilevskiy without a chance to see Artturi Lehkonen’s shot from the left side. Vasilevskiy reached out his glove but never saw the puck, and it gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead just 50 seconds into the game.
The Avalanche not only put bodies in front of Vasilevskiy all night, but they also flipped the script on the Lightning, pressuring Tampa Bay with a relentless forecheck that made it difficult moving into the offensive zone. Colorado’s second goal came after Nathan MacKinnon pushed his way to the front, getting inside on Brayden Point on his way to the paint, where MacKinnon had an easy tip-in past Vasilevskiy.
Vasilevskiy also showed what he can do if given just a bit of time to see and react, as evidenced by a huge save in the second period. After committing to his right anticipating a pass to Mikko Rantanen in the post, he was able to react when the puck instead deflected off Lehkonen’s stick in the slot, extending his left pad out to tap the puck away.
Vasilevskiy made two huge saves in the final two minutes of regulation — a lunging right-pad save on MacKinnon, and a stop of J.T. Compher from point-blank range to send the game into overtime.
The Lightning power play went flat
After scoring two power-play goals in Thursday’s win, the Lightning couldn’t muster anything with the man advantage, nearly allowing more scoring chances than they created. We’ve seen the Lightning power play struggle to get in sync, but their issues on Tuesday had more to do with how aggressive the Avalanche’s penalty kill was playing.
The Lightning were 0-for-4 on the power play and manufactured only five shots on goal in eight full minutes on the man advantage while allowing three short-handed scoring chances.
Even despite struggling, the Lightning power play had its chances, including one in the third period when Brandon Hagel couldn’t handle a cross-crease pass from Steven Stamkos to the back post with an open net in front of him in a 3-3 game.
Nick Paul’s return reunited a strong third line
The Lightning had been without Nick Paul for the past two games, and his return to centering the Lightning’s third line gave Tampa Bay a boost. The line of Ross Colton, Paul and Pat Maroon has made a huge impact with heavy and responsible hockey on both ends of the ice.
Through the first two periods, the Paul line had 15 shot attempts, 10 more than they allowed. Colton had one of the Lightning’s best looks early, taking a pass from Paul in open ice and just missing a tuck in inside the right post. Colton had another Grade-A look in the period, and Maroon had a breakaway in the third created by Paul.
For a big man, Paul can push the puck forward, and has been able to create opportunities for his line mates. He’s the catalyst of that line.
We’re still trying to figure out what goaltender interference is
Alex Killorn was called for goaltender interference late in the second period after he was pushed into Colorado goaltender Alexander Georgiev by defenseman Bowen Byram from behind.
Killorn clearly didn’t want to crash into Georgiev, but Colorado’s Compher disagreed, getting in Killorn’s face long enough for Killorn to drop his gloves. There was a victory in getting Compher, one of the Avalanche’s top faceoff guys, off the ice for five minutes.
Luckily for the Lightning, the team’s penalty-kill unit was able to kill off the 5-on-4 trailing 2-1 at the time.
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