The Tampa Bay Lightning spent most of the night trying to dig out of a hole they created almost immediately, and Colorado never really let them breathe in a 6-3 Avalanche win.
Colorado struck just over a minute into the game, then kept coming with its top line driving play all night. Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Artturi Lehtonen were on the ice for three Avalanche goals at 5v5, and all three finished with multi-point nights. MacKinnon piled up a goal and three assists, Necas added a goal and two helpers, and Lehtonen chipped in a goal and an assist.
Jake Guentzel gave Tampa Bay a couple of lifelines with a pair of goals, and Charle-Edouard D’Astous scored his second of the season. But Andrei Vasilevskiy was left to fight a steady uphill battle, finishing with 18 saves on 23 shots as the Lightning struggled to slow Colorado’s best players.
The Avalanche set the tone almost instantly. After the Lightning opened with a burst of chances against MacKenzie Blackwood, Colorado pushed the other way and MacKinnon and Necas combined on a clean passing sequence that opened up Devon Toews. With Vasilevskiy out of position, Toews buried it to put the home team up 1-0 just over a minute into the night.
Tampa Bay had flashes after that, but the finishing touch never quite came. Turnovers and messy passing kept a lot of their possessions from turning into real pressure, while Vasilevskiy had to hold things together at the other end.
Colorado made the most of a Brandon Hagel penalty too, as T.J. Hughes found Nazem Kadri alone in front for a power-play goal and a 2-0 lead.
Still, the Lightning did create offense in the first period. They doubled Colorado’s 5v5 shot total, 12-6, and owned the edge in scoring chances, 5-3.
They just couldn’t turn those looks into a goal, and Blackwood kept turning them aside. One of Vasilevskiy’s better stops came when he denied MacKinnon from the side of the net, keeping the game from getting away even earlier.
The second period opened with more trouble for Tampa Bay. Just 24 seconds in, a turnover in the neutral zone led to a rush chance, and even after Erik Cernak deflected away the centering pass, the puck popped up and Fedor Svechkov batted it into the net to make it 3-0.
That goal came with another blow for the Lightning: Victor Hedman took just one shift in the second period and did not return for the third.
Tampa Bay did manage to put Colorado on its heels with five power plays in the second period alone, and one of them finally broke through. After a clean faceoff win and a puck movement to the point, Charle-Edouard D’Astous fired on goal. Blackwood stopped the shot, but Jake Guentzel was right there to bury the rebound and cut it to 3-1.
That moment gave the Lightning some life, but Colorado answered right back through its top line. MacKinnon set up Artturi Lehkonen in front, and Lehkonen finished to push the lead to 4-1.
Tampa Bay trimmed the margin again before the period ended. Guentzel scored his second of the night just as one of the Lightning power plays expired, and Colorado challenged the goal, believing there had been a missed stoppage in play. After a long review, the officials let it stand, and the Avalanche’s lead sat at 4-2.
Any real suspense disappeared early in the third. MacKinnon took the puck in the neutral zone, blew past John Carlson, and ripped a shot past Vasilevskiy to make it 5-2. After being held off the board in his previous two games, MacKinnon bounced back with a casual four-point night and put the result out of reach.
The Lightning still found one more response when D’Astous scored again, this time with Gage Goncalves collecting his first point of the season on the play. But that was the last punch Tampa Bay could land.
With less than three minutes left, Jon Cooper pulled Vasilevskiy for the extra skater. Colorado made it pay immediately. MacKinnon picked off the clearing attempt, got the puck back from Gabe Landeskog, and slid it into the empty net for the final goal.
Tampa Bay dropped to 2-3 on the road and 1-1 on its current trip away from Benchmark International Arena. The Lightning head to Salt Lake City next to face the Utah Mammoth on Saturday night.
In Other News...
Lightning Get A Harsh Reminder Against The NHLs Best
The Lightning ran into the kind of night that can remind a team just how sharp the NHLs best can be. Colorado beat Tampa Bay 6-3 in Denver, with the Avalanche getting goals from Martin Necas, Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews, Nazem Kadri and Fedor Svechkov while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 31 shots behind them.
Jake Guentzel gave Tampa Bay a pair of goals, but the Lightning could not keep pace once Colorado settled in and started tilting the game. Nathan MacKinnon was right at the center of it throughout, setting the tone for the Avalanche offense and leaving Tampa Bay with another look at the margin for error it faces against an elite opponent. [Read more 🡒]
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Still, the lingering issue was the same one that has a way of deciding these margin-of-error nights, because Rochester needed only a brief opening in extra time to end it. Syracuse got the point and the comeback effort it wanted, but the Crunch will have to live with a game that was there for the taking before the overtime finish tipped it the other way. [Read more 🡒]
Crunch Showed Late Fight Before A Frustrating Finish
The Syracuse Crunch found their offense in time to make a game of it at the Upstate Medical University Arena, with Brendan Furry and Ethan Gauthier both scoring in a tight 3-2 overtime loss to the Rochester Americans. Lucas Mercuri and Dylan Duke picked up the assists, and Mads Sogaard turned aside 22 shots for Syracuse in a contest that stayed close enough to swing either way.
Rochester had the edge when it mattered most, with Trevor Kuntar delivering the winner in overtime after a game that never lacked intensity. Matthew Villalta also finished with 22 saves, and the Crunchs late push only underscored how much they had to work to earn even a single point before the finish turned frustrating. [Read more 🡒]