A game after they scored 8 times on 15 shots, the Tampa Bay Lightning scored just once on 41 shots as Alexandar Georgiev picked up his league-leading 13th win as the Avalanche bested the Lightning, 4-1. Andrei Vasilevskiy wasn’t as busy as he faced just 23 shots despite five power play opportunities for the Avalanche.
Anthony Cirelli had the lone goal for the Lightning while Ryan Johansen scored twice for the Avalanche while Cale Makar and Valeri Nichushkin also found the back of the net.
First Period
It wasn’t a bad period for the Lightning. There were a couple of breakdowns, including one on a power play that left Joel Kiviranta all alone in front of Vasilevskiy, but his shot went wide. Both teams were playing at a brisk pace, not wanting to spend too much time in their own zone with the puck.
Tampa Bay ended up with more shots (12-9), but they also had the benefit of two power plays. Unfortunately, the Avalanche have a better penalty kill than the Carolina Hurricanes and the Lightning struggled to get set up in the zone, especially on the second one.
Still, they had their chances, most notably Brandon Hagel batting a waist-high pass on net that Georgiev just barely got a shoulder on to keep out. Later in the period, Nikita Kucherov found space behind the defense, but his breakaway was knocked away by the goaltender.
Colorado did manage to take the lead off of an odd-man rush. It was a bit of poor fortune for the Lightning as Victor Hedmen had his stick caught up in the Colorado bench while tracking a puck in the neutral zone and lost his balance. When the big man goes down unexpectedly, it takes awhile for him to get back to his feet and by the time he was upright, Ryan Johansen was zooming into the Lightning zone with a teammate. Nick Perbix played off Johansen to deny a passing lane, but the veteran was able to sneak a shot past Vasilevskiy for the game-opening goal.
The Lightning were generating shot attempts (17 at 5v5) but having a little trouble getting them on net as they went wide or high on 7 of their 15 unblocked attempts. Colorado didn’t shoot as much, but had the higher quality of chances with Natural Stat Trick crediting them with 6 HDCF at even strength.
Second Period
With the exception of the penalties they took, the Lightning had a pretty good period so it was slightly unfortunate that they somehow found themselves down 3-0 just three-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame. Did they deserve it? Probably not, but as William Munny liked to say, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”
Colorado doubled their lead just two minutes into the period on a play that went from good to bad in about 10 seconds. It started with a nice play by Brayden Point in the offensive zone to get into a prime shooting spot, but his shot never made it to the net and Colorado was able to break out with numbers.
Cale Makar led the way and his initial pass to Tomas Tatar was blocked by Mikhail Sergachev. Unfortunately the puck went straight back to Makar and his second attempt made it through. Vasilevskiy made a dynamite save on Tatar, but the puck went to Johansen who basically had a tap-in for his second of the night.
Colorado kept their foot on the gas as Calvin de Haan was sent to the box for tripping right after the goal. Long possession in the Lightning zone eventually led to a point shot from Makar that ticked off Luke Glendening’s skate and past Vasilevskiy. Just like that it was 3-0 in favor of the home team.
Colorado pressed a little more with MacKinnon line, but the Lighting did a decent job of keeping things to the perimeter and stemmed the tide a bit. They then had a little pressure of their own and it looked like Mikey Eyssimont, the hometown kid, had put them on the board as he heeled a rebound past Georgiev. Alas, the Lightning were offside on the entry and the goal was erased from existence.
Colorado had the chance to extend the lead as the Lightning took three penalties in a five-minute stretch, including two within a minute of each other that gave the Avalanche a 49-second 5-on-3. Overall, the Lightning did well to keep the deficit at 3, as they forced much of the play to the outside and despite the lengthy power play time Colorado only had 5 shots on goal.
When they were able to keep the play at 5v5, the Lightning were able to more than hold their own. Late in the period they finally put one in the back of the net that counted. Victor Hedman hit Anthony Cirelli on a stretch pass and Tony was able to settle the puck down and beat Georgiev cleanly to make it 3-1 with less than 30 seconds left in the period.
Third Period
With a little momentum, the Lightning came out chasing the next goal, but Colorado was solid in their own zone. Over the first eight minutes the Lightning had 7 shot attempts, 5 were blocked by the Avalanche and 2 went wide. Eventually they would start finding the target, but the clock was working against them.
Another penalty by Motte was killed off, but bled more time off of the clock. The Lightning had a few chances, including one from Cole Koepke from in close, but Georgiev shut off the five-hole to keep it out. With over four minutes to go, Coach Cooper pulled Vasilevskiy for the extra skater, but it didn’t help as Valeri Nichushkin found the empty net.
Tempers flared a little after Jack Johnson cartwheeled Eyssimont with an open-ice hit, but nothing too crazy happened. The Lightning ended up with 5.55 xGF number at the end of the night, so credit to Georgiev for standing tall in net.
The good good news is that the Lightning can shake this one off and get back on the ice against Arizona on Tuesday.
The Lines
The Goals
Ryan Johansen (unassisted) 1-0 Avalanche
Ryan Johansen (Tomas Tatar, Cale Makar) 2-0 Avalanche
Cale Makar (Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon) Power Play, 3-0 Avalanche
Anthony Cirelli (Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov) 3-1 Avalanche
Valeri Nichushkin (Nathan MacKinnon) Empty Net, 4-1 Avalanche
