AN AVALANCHE OF GOALS
Nichushkin, Makar each score twice as Colorado goes up 2-0
DENVER — Looking by far like the better team against the defending champions, the Avalanche overwhelmed the Lightning 7-0 in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Valeri Nichushkin scored his seventh and eighth goals of the playoffs and continued to be the best player on the ice in the final, Game 1 overtime hero Andre Burakovsky beat Andrei Vasilevskiy again and even defensive defenseman Josh Manson and 35-year-old grinder Darren Helm got in on the fun with a goal apiece. Playoff MVP front-runner Cale Makar scored twice in the third period, inciting chants of “We want the Cup!” from a fired up crowd.
“They’re playing at an elite level right now — give them credit. We are not,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “They’re two good teams. They’re just playing a much higher level right now than we are.”
Rarely have the Lightning been completely outclassed during this run of postseason success, but they also hadn’t faced an opponent like the Avalanche, who forced them into one uncharacteristic mistake after another. They were dominant in every facet of the game to move two victories away from the franchise’s first title since 2001 and the first by this core led by Nathan MacKinnon.
The Avalanche go to Tampa for Game 3 on Monday night up in the series despite no goals from MacKinnon. They still became just the third team in NHL history to score three-plus goals in the first period of Games 1 and 2 in the final.
“We played a pretty good game,” Helm said. “We just played a full 60-minute game.”
The dominant performance started by pouncing on an early mistake by typically reliable Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak when he bobbled the puck at the blue line on one of the game’s first shifts. It was all Avalanche after that.
Their aggressive forecheck led them to draw a penalty on veteran Ryan McDonagh and score on the ensuing power play when Burakovsky fed Nichushkin for his first of the night. It wasn’t his last, and the Avs poured it on with six of the game’s first seven shots and complete territorial domination with much of the game played in the Lightning’s end.
“We came out with a purpose,” said forward Andew Cogliano, who returned after missing Game 1 with a finger injury. “We got to our game, we skated from the drop of the puck and we just didn’t let up. ”
With Vasilevskiy looking shaky and even dropping his head after letting Makar beat him clean on one of many 2-on-1 rushes, the Avalanche made the most of all their offensive zone time.
The highest-scoring team this postseason put on a clinic against the team that has played more hockey than anyone else over the last two years.
Darcy Kuemper was barely tested in net for the Avalanche, picking up the shutout with 17 saves.