Four things we learned from Lightning’s latest triumph against Avalanche
DENVER — The only way Lightning will see the Avalanche again after Tuesday night is in the Stanley Cup Finals, but the two teams have been acclimating to one another over the past week.
The second meeting in six days produced the same result but a much closer game as the Lightning defeated Colorado 4-3 in a shootout. Tampa Bay won 5-0 at home on Thursday.
There was a post-season atmosphere at Ball Arena on Tuesday night and the result was another physical, hard-fought, one-goal game. Four of last year’s Stanley Cup finals were decided by a goal.
Here are three things we learned from the Lightning’s recent triumph:
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (left) stops a shot from Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon in the shootout round of Tuesday night’s game. The Blitz won 4-3.
[ DAVID ZALUBOWSKI | AP ]
In last week’s loss to Lightning, the Avalanche were frustrated by Andrei Vasilevskiy, who recorded his first 30-save shutout of the season. But they also felt they hadn’t made Vasilevskiy difficult enough.
Colorado went into Tuesday’s rematch, focused on getting into Vasilevskiy’s kitchen, making him uncomfortable and taking his line of sight, something Colorado coach Jared Bednar said before the game to create a chance against the Lightning goalie to have. Colorado immediately converted when Valeri Nishushkin’s screen left Vasilevskiy in front without a chance to see Artturi Lehkonen’s shot from the left. Vasilevskiy held out his glove but didn’t see the puck, and just 50 seconds into the game the Avalanche went 1-0 up.
In addition to putting corpses in front of Vasilevskiy all night, the Avalanche flipped the script for Lightning and pressured Tampa Bay with a relentless forecheck that made it difficult to get into the offensive zone. Colorado’s second goal came after Nathan MacKinnon pushed forward and got inside en route to the paint at Brayden Point, where MacKinnon had an easy tip-in past Vasilevskiy.
Vasilevskiy also showed what he can do when he has just a little time to see and react, as proved by a big save in the second period. After committing to his right and anticipating a pass to Mikko Rantanen at the post, he was able to react when the puck was instead deflected by Lehkonen’s stick in the slot and extended his left pad to tap the puck away.
Vasilevskiy made two big saves in the last two minutes of regulation – a right-pad save against MacKinnon and a point-blank stop from JT Compher to send the game into overtime.
After hitting two power play goals in Thursday’s win, the Lightning was down with the man advantage and almost conceded more scoring chances than they created. We’ve seen Lightning power play struggle to get in sync, but their issues on Tuesday had more to do with how aggressively the Avalanche’s penalty kill was played.
The Lightning were 0-4 on the power play and managed just five shots on goal with man advantage in eight full minutes while conceding three shorthanded scoring chances.
Despite the troubles, the Lightning power play had its chances, including one in the third period when Brandon Hagel failed to process a cross-kick pass from Steven Stamkos at the back post with an open net in front of him in the 3-3 game.
Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev (right) saves a shot off Lightning center Ross Colton’s stick with a gloved hand during the first half of Tuesday night’s game. The line of Colton, Nick Paul and Pat Maroon had 15 shot attempts in the first two periods.
[ DAVID ZALUBOWSKI | AP ]
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 made a big impression with serious and responsible hockey at both ends of the ice.
In 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 on, taking a pass from Paul on open ice and narrowly missing a tuck in the right post. Colton had another Class A look during this period, and Maroon had a breakaway in the third created by Paul.
For a big man, Paul can push the puck forward and was able to create chances for his linemates. He is the catalyst of this line.
Alex Killorn was called out for goalie interference late in the second half after being pushed from behind by defenseman Bowen Byram into Colorado goalie Alexander Georgiev.
Killorn clearly didn’t want to crash into Georgiev, but Colorado’s compher disagreed and kicked Killorn in the face long enough for Killorn to drop his gloves. It was a win taking Compher, one of the Avalanche’s best faceoff guys, off the ice for five minutes.
Luckily for Lightning, the team’s penalty unit eliminated the 5-on-4 deficit 2-1 back then.
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