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TAMPA, Fla. — Friday night can’t arrive soon enough, Avalanche fans.
Bring your homemade trophies and signs, wear your favorite player’s sweater and wave your provided pom-poms because your team is 60 minutes from their first Stanley Cup in 21 years.
And they will need every ounce of energy that Ball Arena can hold to help them reach the NHL mountain-top and beat the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Woeful in the first period and trailing entering the third period on Wednesday night, the Avalanche gutted out a 3-2 Game 4 overtime win in front of a stunned Lightning crowd. Nazem Kadri scored the winner at 12:02 of an extra sesson dominated by the Avs.
History shows what kind of control the Avalanche are in — teams up 3-1 in the best-of-seven era have won 90.6% of the series.
The first premium chances of overtime were all by the Avalanche in the opening nine minutes — a re-directed Devon Toews slap shot hit the post, a Logan O’Connor stopped breakaway and a Bo Byram shot off the crossbar. In the first 10 minutes, the Avs outshot Tampa Bay 8-3 (not including the two posts) and they were rewarded when Kadri top-shelfed a shot in his first action since being injured in Game 3 of the Edmonton series.
The Avalanche twice rallied from one-goal deficits, on Nathan MacKinnon’s power-play marker off his skate in the second and Andrew Cogliano after Nico Sturm’s shot went off his shin pad in the third. Translation: Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, completely removed from giving up seven goals in last week’s Game 2, was again on his game and stopping anything that wasn’t re-directed.
The Avalanche’s start was a debacle.
Thirty-six seconds into the game, the Lightning scored when Erik Cernak’s blast was stopped by Darcy Kuemper, but Kuemper’s mask was dislodged and eventually fell to the ice as Anthony Cirelli’s put-back from the top of the crease went into the net. Play wasn’t whistled after Kuemper lost his headgear because of the scoring chance.
The first period was a slough for the usually fast-skating and shoot-a-lot Avalanche. The Lightning’s defense cranked up its activity several notches, moving into passing and shooting lanes (12 blocked shots) to prevent the Avs from gaining any offensive zone momentum.
The Avs had one shot in the first 10 minutes.
The Avs had two shots in the first 16 minutes.
The Avs had three shots in the first 18 minutes.
And the Avs had four shots in the first period (two while short-handed).
Kuemper wasn’t the problem. His stops included Nick Paul on a breakaway. Nathan MacKinnon? A non-factor. Kadri? Clearly limited early in his first game in 18 days. The overall vibe? Reeling.
The Lightning was playing with the kind of abandon required when down in a series. Cernak was hobbled on a penalty kill after blocking a shot. Cirellli raced to the locker room after being injured along the end boards. And Steven Stamkos laid out to block a shot in the third period and was slow to get up. All returned to the game.
The Avs, meanwhile, awoke from their slumber in the second period … for a little while.
The Avalanche scored the equalizer as its red-hot power play cashed in on Victor Hedman’s interference penalty. Mikko Rantanen’s shot from the left circle was turned away by Vasilevskiy, but bounced off MacKinnon’s skate and back off Vasilevskiy’s skate and into the net. It was MacKinnon’s first goal of the series.
The Lightning re-took the lead at 10:42 of the second. Hedman lugged it into the Avs zone, stick-handled around a Valeri Nichushkin and scored on the back-hander from the left faceoff dot. No excuses for Kuemper — that was as soft as the disgraceful Amalie Arena ice. As much as he rewarded coach Jared Bednar’s confidence by getting the Game 4 call after being benched in Game 3, Kuemper didn’t pay it forward on that play.
Just take it from the goal-scorer’s reaction. Hedman’s smile as he was mobbed by his teammates suggested that he was asking himself, “That went in? Really? How about my Cale Makar imitation?” It was only Hedman’s 22nd goal in 153 career playoff games and allowed Tampa Bay to take the lead entering the third period.
Down 2-1 entering the third period, the Avalanche tied the score with 17:07 left on a series of fortunate bounces, deflections or caroms — whatever adjective used is applicable. Sturm’s rebound shot went off Cogliano and into the net.
The Lightning outshot the Avalanche 36-27 in regulation.
The Game 4 extra time made this series the sixth in the last 11 years to have at least two overtime games. In the Avs’ first two Final appearances (1996 and 2001), they played only one overtime game — Uwe Krupp’s Cup-clinching goal over Florida in ’96.
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