TAMPA, Fla. — A dynasty isn’t a prophecy. It’s not willed into existence by mere words. So much goes into realizing a dominance rarely seen in professional sports and not in hockey in nearly four decades.
Their dream was born from the pain of past disappointments, and realized by learning that winning games when they matter most is built through defense and discipline, not necessarily skill and showmanship.
All the Lightning’s experience — 71 postseason games the past three seasons — wasn’t enough to climb out of a 3-2 series hole. The Lightning ultimately fell two wins short of lifting the Stanley Cup for three straight seasons — just shy of etching their own legacy as the first team to accomplish such championship supremacy in the salary cap era and overall since the Islanders claimed four straight titles to open the 1980s.
After playing like there’s no tomorrow, the Lightning ran out of chances Sunday night with a 2-1 Game 6 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
No champagne celebration. No boat parade.
No dynasty.
Instead, the Avalanche celebrated on the Lightning’s home ice.
This series was a classic. Two heavyweights slugged and countered. Four of the series’ six games were decided by a goal.
The Lightning were close. Colorado needed overtime for two of their wins. Three of the Avalanche’s last five goals going into Game 6 went off a player’s skate or leg before finding the back of the net.
This was the game the Lightning wanted, the kind of low-scoring, tight-checking game that this team built a championship formula around.
The Lightning entered the night confident. They had outplayed the Avalanche in 5-on-5 and were coming off a complete win in Game 5.
The Avalanche’s Cup-winning goal came after a Nathan MacKinnon’s pass went off Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh’s skate and to Artturi Lehkonen, who beat Andrei Vasilevskiy from the left dot.
Lehkonen’s goal, which came with 7:32 left in the second period, gave Colorado its first regulation lead since the first period of Game 3.
MacKinnon scored his playoff-high 13th goal of the postseason on a one-timer below the left dot that hit off Vasilevskiy’s blocker and went in.
Stamkos gave the Lightning an early lead with his career-high 11th goal of the postseason just 3:48 into the game.
Nikita Kucherov fought for the puck behind the net to keep it in the offensive zone, and an Avalanche turnover sent the puck off Ondrej Palat’s skate and onto Stamkos’ stick in front of the net. Stamkos’ goal was his fourth to open scoring of the postseason, most of any player.
But that was all the Lightning could manufacture.
In the end, the Lightning couldn’t force a winner-take-all Game 7 in Denver to put the pressure on Colorado.
The Lightning almost made winning look easy, but inside a locker room of players skating through bruises and breaks, they would be the first to tell you how difficult both physically and mentally it is to win the Cup. Top line center Brayden Point didn’t play after Game 2 of the Cup final due to a lower-body injury.
As the clock ticked down in the third period Sunday, tension filled Amalie Arena. And when the buzzer sounded, for the first time in three years and two months, the Lightning had lost the final game of the season.
