By: Brandon Rivera
The Colorado Avalanche did not win game five in Denver last Friday night, a game fans packed into Ball Arena hoping to celebrate their first championship in 20 years. Instead, Avalanche fans had to wait, but the wait wasn’t long.
On Sunday the Colorado Avalanche faced the three-time Stanley Cup Champs (who have won the cup in back-to-back seasons prior to this years finals) the Tampa Bay Lightning in Florida. Although Friday’s loss, a huge disappointment to fans, was a huge win for the back-to-back champs many will agree that the win merely delayed the inevitable.
In game six it was clear that the Tampa Bay Lightning’s strategy was to come out fast and strong, in an attempt to overwhelm a team that has overwhelmed most of their opponents throughout the playoffs. Colorado’s strategy was simple, play at their normal pace and allow their opponent to wear themselves down and attack in the second half of the game.
The Lightning scored under four minutes into the game after Cale Makar pulled the puck off the boards which was poked off his stick and onto a pass waiting for Lightning captain Steve Stamkos in front of the net and underneath Darcy Kuemper.
It wasn’t until the second period that the Avalanche were able to tie things up on a Nathan MacKinnon goal two minutes into the second period. The Lightning had outshot the Avs in the first but by halfway through the second Colorado had evened up the shots on goal.
The volley of shots-on-goal continued through most of the second until about 7:33 when Arturi Lehkonen caught a blocked pass from Nathan MacKinnon to Josh Manson for the go-ahead goal for the Avalanche.
Darcy Kuemper and Colorado’s defense stiffened up and in the third period the Colorado Avalanche only allowed two shots on goal halfway through the third. The Avalanche dominated their time in the Lightning’s zone keeping the puck on their side of the ice most of the third period.
With two minutes left in the game it appeared that the Avs were well on their way to their third cup as they continued to control the puck and keep the Lightning at bay.
Once time expired the Avalanche stormed the ice in celebration in front of a distraught Tampa Bay Lightning crowd.
Fans watched in disbelief while the Cup ceremony took place and the cup passing from player to player commenced.
No more than five minutes into the ceremonial events the team gathered for a photo on the ice with Nicholas Aube-Kubel carrying the cup to the photo shoot only to trip up and dent the cup making it the quickest dent to cup in NHL history.
Colorado will celebrate with fans on Thursday, June 30th with pre-parade festivities at 9 a.m. at Civic Center Park. There will be music and highlight reels from the season. The parade itself will begin at 10 a.m. at Union Station where fans are welcome to line 17th St. from Union Station to Broadway and on to Civic Center Park.
The Stanley Cup’s personal Twitter account had the best response to the Colorado Avalanche’s win: “Turn the light’s off, carry me home.”
