Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports activities
The place did the back-to-back champs cross?
The Colorado Avalanche blew the doorways off the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday evening, bulldozing the protecting Stanley Cup champions by way of a ranking of 7-0 to take a commanding 2-0 collection lead as the overall shifts to Florida.
The Avalanche got here out swinging in Recreation 2, hemming the Lightning in their very own zone for the majority of all the first length — and the entire recreation, in point of fact — even drawing a penalty because of their dogged forechecking within the first shift of the sport.
Valeri Nichushkin would sooner or later capitalize on that guy merit to open the scoring on a deft tip in entrance, the primary of his two objectives at the evening that led the best way for the Avalanche and gave his group an early lead.
It could best worsen for Tampa from then on, as a breakdown within the offensive zone quickly after would result in a two-on-one that used to be in the long run buried by way of Josh Manson to push the ranking to 2-0.
Andre Burakovsky used to be the following Avs participant to pick out up the slack, blasting a shot of his personal previous a suffering Andrei Vasilevskiy and proceed his torrid collection efficiency thru those two video games, handing the Avalanche a 3-0 merit heading into the primary intermission.
The Lightning publish extra of a battle popping out of the damage, to their credit score, but it surely used to be nonetheless the Avalanche who ran the display, with Nichushkin as soon as once more worming his option to the entrance of Tampa’s internet to deposit the 4-0 marker with authority and put the sport smartly out of succeed in.
That did not forestall them from piling on, although. After a couple of respectable makes an attempt by way of the Lightning close to the top of the second one length, some other offensive zone turnover ended in an odd-man damage in the course of ice, with Darren Helm carving thru a couple of Tampa avid gamers ahead of wiring a wonderfully positioned shot over the shoulder of Vasilevskiy.
The 3rd length used to be extra of the similar, with the Lightning making mistake after mistake in high-leverage eventualities and the Avalanche making them pay for it time after time.
It used to be Cale Makar’s flip to get in at the a laugh within the ultimate body, breaking apart Tampa’s cycle at the energy play ahead of ripping a fiery wrister previous Vasilevskiy on a shorthanded rush early within the 3rd, after which doing just about the similar factor, best this time at the guy merit, with kind of 10 mins to visit make it a 7-0 blowout.
Whilst you’ll by no means rely out this Lightning squad early in a chain, particularly ahead of they have even performed a recreation at house, it is onerous no longer to wonder whether Jon Cooper’s group has merely met their fit. The Avalanche outshot the Lightning by way of a whopping 31-17 margin and averted them from ever gaining any semblance of offensive momentum.
It used to be a drubbing of the best order, and now has the Lightning combating for his or her lives as they head again to the pleasant confines of Amalie Enviornment.
This group has come again from a 2-0 deficit ahead of. However the odds are taking a look beautiful bleak this a ways in.
