Nazem Kadri scores OT winner to give Avs 3-1 lead over Lightning in Stanley Cup Final

Kuemper’s mask fell off during the play, but as explained here, it’s a legal goal.

The Lightning dominated the rest of the period on the shot clock by a total of 17-4, but as far as shot attempts go, it was much closer at just 21-19 at even strength. That said, they were much better as far as chances go, with 1.23 expected goals in the first, compared to Colorado’s 0.48.

The Avalanche started to actually get those shot attempts on net in the second period, and it paid off on the power play. Gabriel Landeskog has made a habit out of getting those dirty goals in front of the net in this series and he gets another one here.

But five minutes later, Tampa Bay responded again, this time with a goal from Victor Hedman, skating up the ice, dangling around Valeri Nichushkin and Jack Johnson, and burying a backhand shot by Kuemper, and the Lightning took a 2-1 lead.

The Lightning thought they took a big loss later in the period, as Cirelli suffered a skate cut to his arm from teammate Alex Killorn, and had to leave to the dressing room. He ended up returning for the third period but wasn’t taking faceoffs.

Even though Cirelli returned, the bad luck continued for the Bolts at the start of the third. The Avs got an early goal in the period, as Nico Sturm pounced on a rebound from Darren Helm’s shot and it deflected off of Andrew Cogliano and in to tie the game at 2-2.

That ended up as the last goal of regulation and overtime was needed to decide this one. Colorado was all over the Lightning in the first half of overtime, and almost ended it with this chance, but Bowen Byram hit the crossbar.

That didn’t come back to bite them, as Kadri took advantage of a tired Lightning team, flew into the zone while receiving an Artturi Lehkonen stretch pass, and roofed one past Andrei Vasilevskiy to win the game for the Avs. With shades of Patrick Kane in 2010, the officials weren’t entirely sure if it went in at first, but after they found the puck in the back of the net, it was confirmed. The Avalanche had won the game 3-2, and now have a 3-1 series lead, with a chance to win it all in Colorado on Friday.