Stanley Cup Final 2022: Best moments, scenes and breakdown as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3

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The current Stanley Cup champions could have been on the ropes. But the Tampa Bay Lightning, winners of back-to-back titles, came home and cut their deficit from two games to one, defeating the Colorado Avalanche 6-2 in Game 3 on Monday.

It wasn’t just the two-game deficit in the Stanley Cup Final that had Lightning fans worried; that was how Avalanche had won. Colorado jumped out to an early lead in both games and, in Game 2, absolutely dominated Tampa Bay. Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, one of the best postseason goalies in NHL history, gave up seven goals Saturday.

But on Monday, it was the Colorado goalkeeper who felt the pressure. Darcy Kuemper was taken out when Tampa Bay took a 5-2 lead beyond the middle of the second period.

This is what happened when Lightning did it to his house in Game 3.

we have a series

Colorado is in somewhat uncharted territory.

The Avalanche hadn’t lost since May 25 before falling 6-2 on Monday. They hadn’t lost in the postseason by such a large margin. Kuemper was taken off, putting a cloud over his goal. All that depth scoring dried up. Everything was wrong.

Tampa Bay was a force. It should have been an exciting win, except Lightning lost Nicholas Paul and Nikita Kucherov to apparent injuries in the process. Kucherov came out late in the third after being tied with Devon Toews across the board. Paul left in the second half, just after scoring a goal.

It was Colorado’s first road loss in the playoffs, but the Avs still lead the series 2-1. Tampa Bay remains perfect at home in the postseason. What does that portend for Game 4 on Wednesday? Stay tuned. –Kristen Shilton

Tampa Bay came to play

As Jon Cooper said before Game 3: “These guys are a great team, but so are we. And we’ve been to these places before.”

He is right; the Lightnings have been down before. They have been counted before. And just like those places, the reports of his disappearance in the Stanley Cup Final seem highly exaggerated.

Much like the Lightning came back from a 2-0 road deficit in the Eastern Conference finals, they look like a different team in Game 3 against the Avalanche. They got 16 shots in Game 2; They’ve pumped 26 shots into the Avalanche goal tonight. They got 50% of shot attempts in two periods after getting just 29% of them in Game 2. They failed to score on the power play in the first two games; they finally scored one in Game 3. Their stars stayed in check in Denver; Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Ondrej Palat and Victor Hedman had multipoint games.

Oh, and perhaps most importantly: They scored six goals, to the Avalanche’s two goals, and hounded Colorado goalie Darcy Kuemper in the process.

“We have to go out there and find our best game right now,” Pat Maroon said before Game 3, in which he contributed an attacking goal. “They haven’t seen the best of us. So we’re excited. Hopefully we can show them the best of us tonight.”

For 40 minutes, they showed something similar. But there are still 20 more minutes to go and the Avalanche are one of the few teams that could close a four-goal gap. –Greg Wyshynski

Colorado down big through two

Jared Bednar did not hesitate. When the Lightning took a 5-2 lead beyond the middle of the second, Darcy Kuemper was out after allowing five goals on 21 shots. Pavel Francouz got the go-ahead.

It had to be done.

Kuemper was strong early in the first period, but had become a liability. He couldn’t resist pressure from the Lightning, and Colorado (perhaps not coincidentally) wasn’t playing with confidence against him.

This was the first game in a long time where Kuemper had really been called upon to step up. Tampa Bay trailed the Cup Final 2-0 and everyone knew a setback was coming. The Avalanche haven’t faced much adversity lately and Kuemper, who saw just 16 shots in Game 2, didn’t handle it well.

Granted, Colorado isn’t doing much to help any of its goalkeepers. The Lightnings have flipped the script for Game 2 and are winning races and battles. They are beating Colorado at their own game. And Andrei Vasilevskiy seems locked up again. That could be even worse for Avalanche than seeing her own initial fight. — Shilton

Lightning in the lead through one

For much of it, Lightning’s first period felt more like survival than an assertive response to the Avalanche’s 2-0 series lead. They needed Andrei Vasilevskiy’s toe save on JT Compher around four minutes into the game. They needed the NHL Situation Room to get Valeri Nichushkin’s floating goal off the board thanks to an offside play. They needed a funky “no shot” goal from Anthony Cirelli to get past Darcy Kuemper into the net for the first goal since the second period of Game 1.

But then, in an instant, they looked like Lightning again. Ondrej Palat stealing the puck from a Devon Toews pass. Nikita Kucherov drawing defenders to him in the offensive zone. Steven Stamkos set up Palat for a goal to make it 2-1, as the unnamed winger scored a point in his ninth straight home playoff game. And Vasilevskiy holding the lead against more pressure from Colorado, as the Avs had 14 shots on goal in the period.

The Lightning are 6-1 when leading after one period. More importantly, they didn’t fall behind by multiple goals after the first 10 minutes of a game in this series. Little victories. — Wyshinsky

The avalanche is left behind

Valeri Nichushkin thought he had scored the first goal of the match with an exchange kick that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy early in the first half.

It was Tampa Bay that would get the trade.

The Lightning successfully challenged the play as an offside, taking the wind off Colorado’s sails in what had been a framework run primarily by Tampa Bay.

However, it didn’t last long. Colorado is the toughest team you’ll find and they proved it again by resisting both Tampa Bay’s early push and their early power play opportunity. Avalanche not only stopped Lightning, but also took a penalty. Gabriel Landeskog scored on the next man lead to turn the tide for Tampa Bay.

That was the ninth straight unanswered goal scored by Colorado in this series.

It was a nine-minute stretch that showcased Colorado at its best: depth, strength, talent, identity.

Avalanche will need more of those segments as the night progresses. They became sloppy as the period progressed. And it was Rayo who took advantage with a couple of goals. Colorado hasn’t had to face much adversity lately. Between the disallowed goal and trailing behind in this Cup final for the first time, how will they handle a real challenge now? — Shilton

famous fans

Colorado Rockies pitcher and Denver native Kyle Freeland stood out from the crowd as he cheered on his hometown team.

Did someone say ‘chicken parmesan’?

Peanut butter and jam. batman and robin John Buccigross and chicken parmesan. The tradition of teams introducing Buccigross to food continued before Game 3. The Lightning even involved his mascot, ThunderBug.

In case you need a better view, our Greg Wyshynski has you covered.

Tampa Bay is down but not out

Is the situation ideal? No. Is the series over? far from there Will this Lightning hype video have Tampa Bay fans ready to run through a wall before the puck drops? Probably.




Reference-www.espn.com

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