Game 6 will be. In the 5th match of the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals, Tampa Bay Lightning went to the sprawling ball arena and bravely beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2. Despite going down 3-1 in the series, the back-to-back series champions are not yet fully finished. Colorado won Game 4 in extra time at Tampa. Lightning won the race in Colorado on Friday.
As in Game 3, Lightning took a 1-0 and 2-1 lead. This time, John Ruta and Nikita Kucherov scored for Tampa Bay, and Colorado entered the third period with a goal behind. However, the avalanche did not take long, as a gale-maker shot bounced off Lightning defender Eric Chernak’s skate by Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevsky and received a positive bounce.
Unfortunately tireless, the lighting continued to improve, eventually being at the forefront. 6:22 With the rest of the control, Victor Headman pinched the corner and saw that the ondridge pallet in the slot was wide open. Ballad, who fired a bullet through the legs of Colorado keeper Darcy Cumber, did not miss a glorious goal opportunity.
No one expected this Lightning team to curl up and hand over the Avalanche Stanley Trophy, but it was still an impressive win. Avalanche will try again to finish the series in Game 6 on Sunday night. The buck drop is set after 8:00 pm ET.
Bolts Bad Pack
No one should be surprised that Lightning had an incredible fight in Denver, but defeating the home avalanche is a high order, especially as fans are foaming at the mouth for another Stanley Cup. Tampa Bay looked like they lost in Games 1 and 2, but in the 5th game the team battled for three seasons.
Lightning does not really need to withstand a storm in the first period because, for their arrival, there is no great motivation by avalanche. Instead, it was an equal opening law, and Tampa went to the locker room with the lead. The most impressive part of the Bolts scene was how they reacted after allowing the opening goal of the third period in the unfortunate bounce. There was a commotion in the ball arena, and Vasilevsky had to make some big savings, but Tampa ruled quickly and reached the goal of winning the game. A lot of lightning has passed and there is no panic in this group. It was on display tonight.
The only difference is the goal
It was the only game ever played in the series, and made a goal difference. That means one big mistake Cumber made was a big one on the scoreboard. From looking at the shot count, Gumber had a good night. He stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced, but it was one of the first Tampa Bay goals he had to stop if Colorado wanted to finish the series. Rutta allowed a seemingly harmless slapshot to fly from the right circle, but it bounced off the bulb between Cumber’s glove and pad. Kuimper settled after that, but lost the game for a mistake Avs. Throughout the postseason he suffered a number of setbacks, but it really didn’t cost Avs much yet. His opponent, Vasilevsky, stopped 35 of the 37 shots against him. I’ve said it before, but this goldfighting inconsistency was Tampa’s best shot to win this Stanley Cup final.
Ondrej Palat is back on a big scale
Ballad is not the biggest star in the NHL, but he certainly has a case to become very clutch. With another game-winning goal in Game 5, Balad wrote another chapter in his post-season Heroics Encyclopedia.
That third period was the 12th game-winning playoff goal in Palat’s career until 2014. According to Sportsnet, he is the third most active player after Joe Powellsky and Evgeny Malkin. That’s not a bad company. In each of Tampa Bay’s last two Stanley Cup runs, Balad scored two game-winning goals, but he surpassed himself this year. This is Balat’s third game-winner in the 2022 playoffs, and he has one more game to add to that total. For whatever reason, when the game is tight, it is palatable to step on the lightning.
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