For the first time in what feels like forever, the Stanley Cup Final features two of the best teams in the league playing for the Cup. There was plenty of hype for this series — with the Tampa Bay Lightning on the verge of a dynasty and the Colorado Avalanche looking to become the next big dynasty — and Game 1 certainly did not disappoint.
While many expected the Avalanche to be slow out of the gate coming off a prolonged rest, they were anything but in the early minutes. They came flying out of the gate, and after killing an early penalty, they were rewarded with the first goal of the game from captain Gabriel Landeskog, who buried the trickling puck that got past Andrei Vasilevskiy after Mikko Rantanen’s shot wasn’t entirely stopped.
That pressure continued for the next couple of minutes, so much that Colorado even overwhelmed Victor Hedman. He made a risky pass that ended up on the stick of Nathan MacKinnon, and the Avs star made a slick slap pass to Valeri Nichushkin, who wired it past Vasilevskiy to give them a 2-0 lead.
The Bolts, and more importantly Hedman, responded as well. He made a smart clear down the ice, and Nick Paul jumped on the loose puck, made a couple of dekes with the puck bouncing and, with a bit of luck as well, tucked the puck past Darcy Kuemper to make it a 2-1 game.
But two quick penalties quickly negated any progress, as the Avs got 1:10 of offensive pressure on a five-on-three before another Rantanen shot found a home in the back of the net, this time deflected by Artturi Lehkonen, and Colorado had a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period.
It took Tampa until the middle of the second period before it finally started the comeback, but it started it in style, with Nikita Kucherov dancing around Devon Toews before setting up Ondrej Palat with a beautiful pass to make it 3-2.
And just like how the Avs made it 2-0 in quick succession, the Lightning did the same with their comeback. The Bolts pressured hard right after the Palat goal, and were rewarded for their effort just 48 seconds later, as Mikhail Sergachev took a shot that had eyes as it beat Kuemper to tie the game.
The third period lacked goals, but not excitement. Chances came at both ends, but both goalies held strong and shut the door. With that, the already-intense Game 1 got even more wild with some overtime.
That said, as exciting as the prospect of overtime is, it’s usually been over pretty quickly in these playoffs. That was no different in this Game 1, with Andre Burakovsky scoring the game-winner just 1:23 into the frame to give the Avs the win and the 1-0 series lead.
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