Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 50: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning rebound with rout of their own in Game 3 win

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell(scotmaxw)
Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 50: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning rebound with rout of their own in Game 3 win
Credit: © Mark J. Rebilas

The closest the Colorado Avalanche were to being human in these playoffs was Game 2 against the St. Louis Blues. The Tampa Bay Lightning got them to be just that in Game 3 with a dominant 6-2 win over the Avs, rebounding from a disastrous 7-0 rout in Game 2.

The Avalanche thought they had carried over the momentum from Game 2 immediately with a goal early in the game off the stick of Valeri Nichushkin, but after further video review, it was deemed that the Avs went offside earlier in the play.

That didn’t stop them from trying, as after the Lightning gave the Avalanche a power play, and after some usual Colorado magic to set up a Mikko Rantanen shot, Gabriel Landeskog was in front of the net to bury the rebound and give the Avs a 1-0 lead.

The Lightning got a power play shortly after, and while they didn’t score then, they did just after it ended. Anthony Cirelli carried the puck out of the Lightning’s zone and passed it to Zach Bogosian, who immediately sent it back to Cirelli, and Cirelli drove the net, and despite losing the puck, he scored, as it trickled through Darcy Kuemper’s five hole, and the game was tied 1-1.

The Bolts didn’t stop there either. Less than two minutes later, Ondrej Palat capitalized on a soft blueline pass from Devon Toews and intercepted the puck, carrying it up for a 2-on-2 that he and Nikita Kucherov executed perfectly, with Palat crossing over not once, but twice to confuse Toews and Cale Makar, with a pass to a trailing Steven Stamkos somewhere in the middle there. Stamkos then sent the puck back to Palat, who was wide open and scored an easy goal to give the Lightning the 2-1 lead, and their first lead of the series.

Nick Paul suffered an injury in the first period after a hit, but he didn’t seem to let that bug him in the second. When he tested it early in the second, he was at least comfy enough to score the 3-1 goal for Tampa Bay, even if he was going back and forth from the dressing room for the rest of the game.

But Tampa started to let the Avs back into the game a little bit. Ross Colton hooked Artturi Lehkonen to give Colorado a power play, and they capitalized, with Landeskog sniping home his second goal of the night.

But, the Lightning put the hammer down. Or should I say the Stammer down, as Kucherov set up a wide-open Stamkos to give the Lightning a 4-2 lead.

And Patrick Maroon put some more salt in the wound with a nifty little goal of his own, showing off his hands in tight to roof it past Kuemper, giving the Lightning a 5-2 lead, and getting Kuemper pulled for Pavel Francouz.

That didn’t do much to change the momentum though, as the Lightning also got the power play alive again with their first goal of the series on the man advantage, after Corey Perry buried the rebound of a Victor Hedman one-timer, and this game was reaching blowout territory at 6-2.

The Bolts probably were hoping that they could finish off the game quietly, but unfortunately for them, the worst thing aside from a blown lead happened. Kucherov suffered an injury courtesy of a cross-check from Toews, and he had to leave the game.

Aside from that, it was an easy period for the Lightning to get through, and they take Game 3 6-2, cutting Colorado’s series lead to 2-1. Maroon, Palat, Kucherov, and Hedman all had two point nights, while Landeskog, Rantanen, and Makar got in on both of Colorado’s goals. More importantly, Andrei Vasilevskiy had a strong rebound game, stopping 37 of 39 shots after allowing seven goals in Game 2.

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