The Stanley Cup final will last at least six games this year, after Tampa Bay Lightning won Game 5 3-2, keeping Colorado Avelanche away from the Cup for at least two more days.
Game 6 is Sunday in Tampa (8 ET, ABC and ESPN +). When Colorado leads the series 3-2, what are the keys to victory for each country? How confident are the goalkeepers? And who will be the winner?
More: Schedule of the Stanley Cup finals
Road to victory for Avs
Kristen Shilton: Colorado clearly knows how to beat Tampa Bay: Play fast, create opportunities to hurry and be careful in the details of the breakthrough. Slightly less and Lightning finds ways to repel and raise capital. The avalanche dominated the neutral zone at the beginning of this series. This has not been the case lately. And Colorado doesn’t generate the same quick starts as before. If nothing else, Avalanche looked their best in the third period and the overtime in the matches then 7-0, which they did in match 2.
If Colorado intends to return home with the Stanley Cup after Game 6, it must return to the attack. There’s no point in being afraid to make mistakes at this point, which Avalanche seemed concerned about for most of Game 5.
Closing Lightning is not easy; they wouldn’t be alive in the playoffs if they were. Tampa Bay was eliminated in three of its four series. Colorado must show much more despair in its game to close the Lightning group, firmly wired to outperform the clutch. Avalanche have the talent and tools needed to complete Tampa Bay. What they have to channel in Game 6 is the killer instinct that was at the forefront of their performances in the early series. Colorado excelled on the road in those playoffs, going 7-1 in four sets.
“We were good because we just keep playing our game, no matter the place,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said after game 5. “The boys got deeper on the road. We saw him in the regular season. We’ve seen him really get into the playoffs.” The boys come hungry and ready to play and play according to our identity, so here’s a 60-minute effort, I thought we won the game in Tampa [4-3 in OT in Game 4]we got stronger over the course of the game. “
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Kevin Weeks discusses how Avalanche fails to close Lightning on the home ice in Game 5.
Road to victory for Lightning
Greg Wiszynski: Lightning believed in its recipe for winning the Avalanche all series. Just in the first two games their ingredients were spoiled by terrible starts – a multi-head deficit in the first 10 minutes, which were partly caused by untimely penalties. But in the last three games, they started cooking, leading after the first period in all three races.
2 Related
“You can see what can happen. Winning match 3, match 4 goes on, it was a tense match. That’s how we want to keep it, that’s how we want to play,” said captain Stephen Stamkos. “We know the dynamic set of skills they have. If we can stay disciplined, stay out of the box, try to eliminate their skills as much as you can. That’s the way this team won, and we’re made to play games that are so tight. “
Lightning are comfortable to play in tight games. They rely on goalkeeper Andrei Vassilevski, such as the solid performance of 35 saves they received in Match 5, and the great defense of the team, which left Nathan McKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Miko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri without a goal in Match 5.
But they can only win these tense matches if they get enough points. Sometimes this comes from unlikely sources such as defender Jan Ruta. He often comes from players like Ondrej Palat, whose 11 goals this post-season have included him in Conn Smythe’s conversation.
“I don’t even know what else I can say to describe the boys,” said Lightning coach John Cooper. “You’re down in the series, the Cup is in the building. You’re in a great environment for the home team. And how do you show mastery of the game? Everything we just did. You get the lead, you defend, you take penalties, you put in the game by force. And then when you need the big goal in the end, you get it. “
Checking the goalkeeper’s confidence
Shilton: I would put Darcy Kumper at 7.5 / 10 on the confidence scale.
Bednar did not give Kuemper strong approval, calling his performance in Game 5 “OK”, but then Kumper gave up an easily stopping playoff goal to Rutta, so maybe Bednar was not far away.
Kumper was inconsistent. This wasn’t a big deal, because Colorado was exceptional to him, so Kumper’s comparative mediocrity sometimes didn’t require over-analysis. Tampa Bay is no ordinary opponent, and Vassilevski is not a regular player on the net. Now there are more spotlights on Kuemper than ever and Vassilevski beat him.
With that in mind, Kumper was sensational (minus one goal from Victor Hedman’s backhand allowed) in Colorado’s win in Game 4. This is where Avalanche needs him in Game 6. In practice, it’s clear that Kuemper will give up a bad goal. That would be manageable. I think Kuemper can surpass Lightning, if not directly Vassilevski. Most importantly, he doesn’t allow Bednar – or anything else – to upset him mentally before another critical game.
Vishinski: My trust in Vassilevski is about nine out of 10.
I don’t think he has the aura he had in previous runs. He still makes a few strange saves that give Avalanche a second chance. He outscored Quemper, but had only 0.28 saves more than expected in Match 5.
Lightning’s trust in Vassilevski is basically 11 out of 10.
“He plays the most hockey, more than anyone in the last three years. The man just has it,” said winger Pat Marun. “He finds a way every night. It’s very impressive. The way he did it in the regular season, playing more than 50 games, three playoff series. He plays all 60 minutes. So he’s the man.”
What we see in Game 6
Shilton: What happened to Nathan McKinnon’s finale?
Colorado Avelanch and Tampa Bay Lightning face the Stanley Cup final. You can watch all seven games on ABC, ESPN + and in the ESPN app.
Game 1: Avalanche 4, Lightning 3 (OT) Game 2: Avalanche 7, Lightning 0 Game 3: Lightning 6, Avalanche 2 Game 4: Avalanche 3, Lightning 2 (OT) Game 5: Lightning 3, Avalanche 2 Game 8 hours: Sunday, 8 pm: ET (@ TB) Match 7 *: Tuesday, 20:00 ET (@ COL)
*If necessary
It is dazzling to watch with the puck. You can hold yourself through a telephone booth. But why did his goal evaporate in the Cup final? Yes, MacKinnon gets the toughest matches online. And technically, he scored when Miko Rantanen’s pass came off his skate in Game 4. McKinnon had flashes of greatness in the series that didn’t lead to goals. But MacKinnon really has to shoot with puck. This has never been more urgent than now, on the threshold of a critical clincher.
Players always say that generating opportunities is important, and MacKinnon obviously does. But he has little track left to help Avalanche by appearing in the protocol with tangible results. If McKinnon is the changed man everyone claims to be and plays freely, now is the time to show him with timely goals from his stick, instead of skating.
Wiszynski: Are we going to witness the main point for the special teams in the Stanley Cup final?
The X factor in Game 5 was that Lightning finally converted power for only a second time in 18 options. Nikita Kucherov’s goal for a 4-on-3 advantage was that they lacked an additional result in the losses during overtime in matches 1 and 4.
“The game of power is a little difficult,” Stamkos said. “Obviously a big moment in the game. We hope we can gain confidence from that as well.”
Meanwhile, the penalty showed his best performance. It was the first time in five games that Avalanche had not scored a goal in a strong game, having previously gone 6-for-13 with a male advantage. But the key number was two, as in the number of power games that Lightning transmitted to Colorado. This was the second consecutive game in which they limited Avalanche to two powerful games. This is huge.
Forecasts for the final result
Shilton: I still think Colorado is the better team. And Avalanche have not lost another playoff game. Tampa Bay is impressively durable. Lightning really leaves everything on the ice every night and Game 5 showed that they are nothing but brave. If Colorado can play all 60 minutes, as it did the last 20 of that game, and if Kumper can be his best self, Avalanche must find a way. 4-2 Colorado.
Wiszynski: My prediction for the pre-series was Avalanche in six and I will stick to that. Kumper needs to be better, and McKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen need to assert much more dominance. I think they will. I like to win another well-played match in Tampa and finally lift the Cup again. 3-2 Colorado.
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