Avalanche beat Lightning in overtime, take 1-0 lead in Stanley Cup Final
The Colorado Avalanche took Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final with an overtime winner to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-3, on Wednesday.
The Lightning started overtime a man down, but managed to kill last 36 seconds of an Avalanche power play that began in the third period. It didn't matter, though, as Colorado won the game less than a minute later when André Burakovsky buried a shot in the back of the net.
Colorado jumped out to an early 2-0 lead Wednesday with a pair of goals in the first 10 minutes of the game from Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin. While Tampa Bay got on the scoreboard with 7:34 left in the first period via a Nicholas Paul goal, the Avalanche pushed the lead back to two with a power play goal from Artturi Lehkonen about five minutes later.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy settled in after his rough start and shut out the Avalanche in the next two periods. Tampa Bay tied the score at 3-3 with two goals in 48 seconds from Ondrej Palat and Mikhail Sergachev in the second period.
Colorado kept its starting goaltender a secret until the final moments before the puck dropped Wednesday. The Avalanche decided to rely on Darcy Kuemper, who missed the final two games of the Western Conference Final after suffering an injury in Game 2. Kuemper made 20 saves in his return to action.
Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final is scheduled for Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET.
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