Game 6 victory brings the Stanley Cup back to Colorado

The journey is over. The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup last night with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The win gave the Avalanche a 4-2 series victory over the two-time defending champion Lightning and ended their big for the NHL’s first “three-peat” since the 1980s New York Islanders won four in a row.

It wasn’t the highest-scoring game but it was exactly the kind of knockdown back alley brawl many doubted the Avalanche were capable of winning, let alone against the Lightning, a team that has specialized in low-scoring, opportunistic hockey in their previous Cup runs.

With Andrei Vasilevskiy back there producing historically great numbers, the Lightning have been comfortable giving other teams a shot advantage as long as the quality remained relatively close and Tampa Bay’s stars regularly showed up to produce.

That’s exactly how Game 6 began as the Avalanche once again gave up the game’s first goal when a failed clear by Cale Makar took some fortunate (for Tampa Bay) bounces and landed on Steven Stamkos’s stick, where he just spun and slipped the puck in between Darcy Kuemper’s pads as he was sliding from his right to his left and vacated his stick position that should have been covering the five hole.

Instead of getting down, the Avalanche did what they consistently did all year: they got back to work. No pouting, no lamenting any level of fortune that played into the goal, they accepted it was a 1-0 hockey game and they were tasked with once again getting up off the mat.

These two battered teams cruised through a quick opening period where the Lightning outshot the Avalanche 10-8. It was the last time Tampa Bay would have the shot advantage in this game.

The Avalanche put together an excellent second period, tying the game initially on a delayed penalty call when Nathan MacKinnon snuck down low and ripped a one-timer past Vasilevskiy that beat him low blocker. Bowen Byram picked up the primary assist, but more on him later.

Colorado found themselves tied at one with the lion’s share of the momentum. At least so they thought.

A spirited discussion between Stamkos, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, and referee Kelly Sutherland took place at Tampa Bay’s bench. There was nothing for the Lightning to challenge, but Sutherland gave Cooper and Stamkos the time of day anyway. One expects this was the same show of respect given to Cooper in Game 3 when Cooper got nearly triple the amount of time he should be given in order to challenge a goal.

This time, however, there was nothing Tampa Bay could do except continue this stall tactic of theirs as they tried to make their point to the officials about a missed call (Cooper felt the Lightning had sufficiently touched the puck after the delay penalty was called, but the officials disagreed) while also finding a way to lessen the momentum gain the Avs got from the game-tying goal.

Unfortunately, this would not be the last time we saw this gamesmanship from the Lightning, who would later use multiple equipment issues for Vasilevskiy to buy additional time for tired players to rest after icing calls.

Once the puck dropped and the game resumed at 1-1 in the second period, the Avs continued pressing.

They ended with an odd-man rush the other way. Nathan MacKinnon tried to find Josh Manson but the puck was deflected by both Lightning defenders and landing directly on Arturri Lehkonen’s stick. Lehkonen immediately rifled the puck high past Vasilevskiy’s glove and gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead.

Just like that, Colorado was back in the driver’s seat to win the Stanley Cup.

A 13-9 shot advantage for the Avs masked a bit how well Colorado had really played, but going from a 1-0 deficit to a 2-1 lead very obviously has perks of its own.

One of those perks is coming out for a third period where Colorado didn’t have to try to play much offense but certainly couldn’t just pack it in and try to block shots for 20 minutes.

Instead, the Avs ultimately slammed the door shut on the Lightning with a tremendous display of raw dominance. They attacked, attacked some more, and when in doubt, attacked again.

It’s not very often you see a team trailing by one goal going into the third period get outshot 9-4, but the Lightning managed it in this one. By that point, they were too beaten up, too tired, too broken down, too emotionally and physically drained after three Stanley Cup Final trips in a row.

Colorado locked it down defensively and Kuemper made the only four saves required of him as the Lightning also missed the net entirely on a two-on-one rush opportunity that ended with Nikita Kucherov just sailing the puck. No harm, no foul.

The Avs finished without too much of a push, to be honest. I was expecting more from the Lightning but their first-period push was the last time we saw them really take over the game the way we expected. They put together a couple of chances, but that was it. Just a couple. And then the puck was gone the other way.

Rinse and repeat until the clock hits zero.

Colorado Avalanche, Stanley Cup champions.

TAKEAWAYS

• There were will plenty coming from us in the coming days as we look back on this historic run from the Avs, but the number one thing that blew me away was Colorado’s postseason goal differential. The Avs finished an absurd +30 in the playoffs. That goal differential would have given the Avs the 13th-best goal differential during the regular season, ahead of Washington and behind Boston. The next-best goal differential during the postseason belonged to the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers, both tied at +6. The Avs also finished with incredible averages of 39.1 shots per game but just 27.9 shots against per game.
• Cale Makar justifiable won the Conn Smythe and became just the third NHL defenseman in NHL history to win both the Norris Trophy and Conn Smythe in the same year. The other two to accomplish it? Bobby Orr and Nicklas Lidstrom. That’s exactly the kind of company you want to keep as a 23-year-old.
• Darcy Kuemper was simply not good enough in the postseason relative to expectations after a sparkling regular season, but in the Stanley Cup Final he only had to be one save better than Vasilevskiy. He was only just, and that was enough. There will be plenty of time to dissect the merits of the Avs bringing him back versus rolling the dice with the goaltender market again, but for tonight he can sleep comfortably knowing he outdueled Vasilevskiy on the game’s ultimate stage. It’s time others gave him his due for that.
• Byram won’t get as much love as plenty of other deserving candidates but I wanted to make sure I put some respect towards Byram. He was asked to take on a significant role when Sam Girard was lost due to injury and Byram stepped in swimmingly.

Bowen Byram played more 5v5 minutes than anyone on either team in that Cup Final and the Avalanche outshot the Lightning 79-44 in that time

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 27, 2022