DENVER – Colorado coach Jared Bednar was unhappy with the controversial penalty in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final on Friday, which helped determine the fate of Avalanche in the 3-2 loss to Tampa Bay.
Bednar’s team led 3-1 in the series, entering game 5 with a chance to lift the cup on the home ice. The lightning won in part due to a stumbling block imposed on Cale McCarthy in the second period, which led to a goal in the game 4 on 3 by Tampa Bay striker Nikita Kucherov.
This turned out to be the difference in Friday’s result, which Bednar did not like.
“I didn’t like that call, just because I don’t think there was any intention,” Bednar said. “I don’t even think this man checked [Ondrej Palat]. It was as if he had tripped over his wand. This is difficult. They scored their only goal in the power play. So it hurt, it stung a little. But that’s what it is. You have to roll with the punches. “
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Although he tried to circumvent the penalty issues afterwards, saying he had not yet seen a replay and focused on Colorado’s ongoing goal of closing the series.
“I’m not here to talk about the judges,” Makar said. “We have to fight this. These are playoffs, there will be discrepancies from match to match with different people. That’s it. You can’t put your emotions into it. For me this [tripping penalty] it doesn’t happen very often, but at the end of the day you have to focus again. “
When this happened, the parties were already playing 4-on-4 due to small penalties for Alex Killarn (detention) and a late compensatory call against JT Compher (holding the baton). Colorado’s penalty shootout was already 2-for-2 at night, but he couldn’t hold back Kucherov when he landed a shot at Darcy Kumper.
Avalanche had already overcome the deficit of 1-0 to equalize the match when Kucherov made 2-1 Lightning. Colorado tried to keep the change of momentum in perspective, despite the advantage of the Tampa Bay man.
“It’s unfortunate,” Devon Toys said of the call. “I do not know if you can say that it is unjustified or not. We failed to kill in this case. Then we just didn’t generate enough or didn’t get enough goals to their goalkeeper. So this is a key moment in the game, but I don’t know if that’s the reason [we lost]”
Friday was the second consecutive Cup final match that focused on refereeing. Lightning coach John Cooper left the press conference after losing to Tampa Bay 4-3 in extra time in match 4 after saying he did not believe Nazem Kadri’s winning goal should have been counted. It was later learned that this was due to a missed call from too many men on the ice against Avalanche.
Colorado was penalized for too many men late in the third period of Game 5, while trailing 3-2, preventing them from pulling Quemper to less than a minute. Bednar rated Kuemper’s overall performance with 26 saves as “good” and the 4-on-3 marker continued to look great for the netminder.
“You know, I liked our game,” Kumper said. “There they got a 4-on-3 call and scored. That was the difference after all.”
Tampa Bay proved after an emotional loss in match 4 that they can quickly turn the page. Now Colorado must do the same and leave behind any prolonged disappointment from Friday’s final as the series moves back to Tampa for Game 6 on Sunday.
“I will not enter [the officiating]”said Captain Gabriel Landeskog.” That’s something they [the Lightning] can continue to do; we don’t do that. We focus on our game. We’ll watch a little video tomorrow, make sure we fine-tune some things for the next game here. “
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