Rout puts Colorado up 2-0
DENVER — Looking like by far the better team against the defending champions, the Colorado Avalanche overwhelmed the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-0 in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night 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-yearold 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. Colorado was dominant in every facet of the game to move two victories away from its first title since 2001.
The Avalanche go to Tampa for Game 3 on Monday up in the series after becoming just the third team in NHL history to score three-plus goals in the first period of Games 1 and 2 in the final.
The dominant performance
started by pouncing on an early mistake by Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak when he bobbled the puck at the blue line on one of the game’s first shifts.
Their aggressive forecheck led them to draw a penalty on veteran Ryan McDonagh, and a score on the ensuing power play when Burakovsky fed Nichushkin for his first of the night. It wasn’t his last, and Colorado poured it on with six of the game’s first seven shots and complete territorial domination with much of the game played in the Tampa Bay end.
“We came out with a purpose,” said forward Andrew Cogliano, who missed Game 1 with an 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 past two years.
“Am I shocked that we lost 7-zip?” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “I mean, I don’t think we saw that coming.”