TAMPA, Florida – The Colorado Avalanche are Stanley Cup champions for the first time since 2001 after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Sunday in the sixth game of the Cup final.
Artturi Lehkonen scored the winning match of the Avalanche in the second period. Darcy Kuemper recorded 22 stops to victory.
Tampa Bay made its third straight appearance in the Cup final after consecutive championships in 2020 and 2021. Lightning would have been the first NHL team to win three consecutive cups since the New York Islanders won four in a row. from 1980. to 1983.
Getting the victory meant another effort from the Avalanche to get the first championship of his franchise in two decades. They had also played from behind in two of their previous three games in the series.
Steven Stamkos scored his 11th postseason goal of 5 holes over Kuemper early in the first period, giving Lightning a 1-0 lead. Tampa Bay beat Colorado by 10-8 in 20 minutes.
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The Avalanche pulled back in the second. Nathan MacKinnon tied the game at 1 – 0 after Andrei Vasilevskiy scored from the penalty spot, putting the ball in near the top left corner.
MacKinnon’s second goal of the series came on a delayed penalty, and Tampa Bay questioned why the play would not be declared dead when Nick Paul had touched the puck. Determining if Paul had possession was not reviewable, so the goal was set to tie the game, 1-1.
Colorado continued with Vasilevskiy until Lehkonen finally broke to put the Avalanche ahead 2-1. This marked the first regulatory lead in the Colorado series since Game 3.
The Lightning bounced back to start the third period, but it was the Avalanche who pressed with a quick 5-0 lead on goal shots. Colorado ended with a 30-23 lead in the game.
Vasilevskiy faced Colorado’s attack in the final frame to give Tampa Bay a chance to tie, but Lehkonen’s goal would be the winner to become Colorado Cup champion.
The Avalanche had already failed once to eliminate Tampa Bay. Colorado secured a 3-1 lead in the series before Game 5 on Friday, but were unable to close out the defending Cup winners in a 3-2 defeat.
The Avalanche mostly controlled the series before that. Colorado secured a 2-0 lead over Tampa Bay with a 4-3 win in overtime in Game 1 and a 7-0 goal in Game 2. Lightning responded with an uneven 6-2 victory in Tampa Bay. game 3, but they couldn’t last. Colorado in a 3-2 loss in overtime in Game 4.
Tampa Bay put a lot of effort into Game 5 to silence the Colorado electric audience and see the series lengthen one more game. The Lightning fed on their own fans in the sixth game, but they couldn’t stop Colorado’s aggressive attack again.
The last time Colorado won the Cup 21 years ago, current general manager Joe Sakic was the team captain and passed the Cup to legendary defender Ray Bourque at an iconic time. This time Sakic watched from above as the club he created finished the job again.
The Colorado Cup victory was the culmination of a dominant postseason series in which the Avalanche stayed 16-3 overall and swept both its first-round series against Nashville and the finals of the Western Conference vs. Edmonton.
It was also adapted into a theme for the Avalanche to lift the hockey chalice over enemy ice. Colorado was fantastic on the road all playoffs, finishing with a 9-1 record and completing all four wins in the series away from home.
“I feel like I’m in disbelief,” MacKinnon said. “It’s hard to describe, but to see all these warriors fighting … it’s amazing.”
Colorado defender Cale Makar, who won the Norris Trophy last week as the best defense in the league, received the Conn Smythe Trophy for the most outstanding player of the postseason.
“Find a Cale Makar somewhere,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said when asked how teams can mimic what Colorado achieved. “We are a very difficult team to play against.”
Tampa Bay had a harder time getting back to the Cup final, falling behind in all but the second round of Florida. The Lightning fell 3-2 to Toronto in the first round and 2-0 to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals, but found a way to beat each opponent.
The Lightning also played much of the postseason without top striker Brayden Point. He suffered a lower body injury in match 7 against Toronto and missed more than a month before returning to match 1 and match 2 of the Cup final. Still not himself, Point would not return to the series.
Colorado also had injury concerns. Kuemper, Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky missed several games with various illnesses (Burakovsky had been out of the Cup final since suffering a hand injury in match 2). Kadri’s broken thumb, suffered in a boarding incident with Evander Kane during the conference finals, was especially severe and required surgery. He got a comeback in Game 4 of the Cup final and scored the winner of overtime.
The Avalanche persevered in its troubles with an impressive depth that was the cornerstone of its global success. The Avalanche had 10 different players scoring at least one goal in the Cup final and 17 recorded one point or more (including Kuemper).
The goalkeepers’ confrontation was a hot topic for the Cup final and did not disappoint. Vasilevskiy recovered from a performance below game 1 (.895 SV%) to be Tampa Bay’s best player.
Kuemper also overcame adversity. He was retired from Game 3 for conceding five goals in 22 shots, but Avalanche coach Jared Bednar returned to him over substitute Pavel Francouz for Game 4 and Kuemper offered his most complete playoff performance ( 37 stops, .949 SV%).
In the end, Kuemper made enough stops to help deliver a Cup for Colorado.