Lightning takes Final back to Tampa
DENVER – The Stanley Cup was in the building and just waiting to be paraded around the ice.
Pack it up. It’s heading back to Florida.
The resilient Tampa Bay Lightning spoiled Colorado’s party to stay in the hunt for a third straight Stanley Cup title, beating the Avalanche 3-2 on Friday night in Game 5.
Ondrej Palat scored with 6:22 remaining and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots in front of a raucous crowd hoping to celebrate the Avalanche’s first championship in 21 years.
“That’s what good teams do – you find a way,” Lightning forward Corey Perry said. “Keep plugging along. This is fun. This is what hockey’s all about, different guys stepping up at different times.”
Game 6 is Sunday night in Tampa. The Lightning trails the best-of-seven series 3-2.
“Listen, this is a huge challenge for us,” Lightning forward Pat Maroon said. “An exciting challenge, too. You’ve got to be excited for this challenge and embrace it.”
The Cup was all shined up and ready for the moment – almost beckoning to the Avalanche from the side. It’s back on the road for the Avalanche, where Colorado is 8-1 in its playoff run.
“We have belief in our room that we can win every game we go out and play,” defenseman Devon Toews said. “We feel like we had a decent game tonight, pretty good game. Obviously it wasn’t enough tonight.”
The Lightning already has rallied back from a 3-2 deficit to Toronto in the first round, and climbed out of a 2-0 hole against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals.
Completing this comeback series win would put Tampa Bay in an entirely different category. Only one team has rallied to capture a Game 7 in the final after trailing 3-1 in a series – the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.
This is a gritty Lightning squad that’s showing no signs of slowing down against a speedy Avalanche team and even after all the contests they’ve logged. Tampa Bay has played in 67 postseason games since the start of the first round in 2020, nearly an entire extra season.
The resolve has impressed Lightning coach Jon Cooper. His team improved to 3-0 this season when facing potential elimination games.
“The mental fortitude you have to have to not buckle in the environment we were just in and play the type of game they did, there’s a reason they’ve got a couple rings on their fingers,” Cooper said.
The Avalanche is trying to capture its first title since 2001 and is 2 for 2 in visits to the Stanley Cup Final. Colorado also won in 1996, which was its inaugural season in Denver after relocating from Quebec.
“It’s not supposed to be easy and it’s not going to be easy,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “We knew that coming into this. … Short memory in the playoffs and that’s what we’re going to do.”