Avs beat Lightning to clinch Cup title

TAMPA, Fla. — The NHL’s worst team only five years ago, the Avalanche completed its journey to the top of the hockey world Sunday night, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in 21 years.

The Avalanche, which won the series in six games and dethroned the two-time defending champion Lighting, completed a tour de force postseason. It never trailed in any of its four series, never dropped consecutive games and lost only four of its 20 games.

And the clinching win was its 10th come-from-behind victory, tying a league record. The Avs received second-period goals from center Nathan MacKinnon and winger Artturi Lehkonen.

The third period was 20 minutes of high drama … most of it produced by the Avalanche. As the Avs created chance after chance, Tampa Bay had no shots on goal in the first 10 minutes of the period.

The Lightning’s first premium third-period chance came with 6:32 left when Kuemper slid laterally to stop a shot by Nikita Kucherov.

Tampa Bay pulled the goalie with two minutes remaining. Avs captain Gabe Landeskog blocked a shot and literally crawled off the ice ahead of a stoppage with 1:15 left. Kuemper made a save through traffic with 1:10 left. MacKinnon cleared the puck down the ice with 25 seconds.

And at 10:48 p.m. local time, the Avs were champions.

The mob scene behind the Avs’ goal included every player who threw each of their sticks, gloves and helmets into the air.

Unable to get over the second-round hump the previous three postseasons, the Avalanche of MacKinnon and captain Gabe Landeskog, defenseman Cale Makar and winger Mikko Rantanen, center Nazem Kadri and winger Valeri Nichushkin joined franchise icons like Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote as champions.

The Avs became only the fourth Cup champion since 1968 to win all four of their series on road ice; they were 9-1 in away games during their two-month skate to glory.