Game analysis: How did Avs let that extra point slip?

Avs run out of gas, lose in shooout to Lightning

I feel like that scene in Billy Madison where Billy yells at his third-grade friend Ernie after they call Miss Vaughan on the phone. I just wanted to yell at the TV after Mikko Rantanen’s shootout attempt was turned aside, “YOU BLEW IT!”

The Colorado Avalanche had a 2-0 lead midway through the game and a 3-2 lead in the third period… and lost. Now, you can argue that the Tampa Bay Lightning are a very, very good team, and the banners in the rafters of their arena would back you up in that thinking. But for a team that was a preseason favorite, Colorado should not constantly be putting themselves in the position to battle back in games for points in which they hold third-period leads.

What ended so harshly for the Avs in the shootout was in complete contrast to the way the game started. Artturi Lehkonen’s goal just 50 seconds into the contest was a tone setter and helped to rinse the taste of last week’s 5-0 shutout loss in West Florida from all of our collective mouths. 

The lead pushed to two with Nathan MacKinnon tapping in a great feed from Bo Byram after the young defenseman wheeled around the top of the offensive zone, opened up space for himself and a passing lane to hit MacKinnon at the far post for the 2-0 edge.

That's when the Bolts do what they do. They lock down, play their game and chip away at the lead. And they do it so well.

Just past the midway point of the second, Nikita Kucherov finished off a great feed from Brayden Point on a 2-on-1 rush that was oh-so-close to being thwarted by Devon Toews only to have the puck find the lone available area to cross the slot and onto the stick of Kucherov for the Tampa tally.

Anthony Cirelli’s Tim Wakefield impersonation had Alexandar Georgiev looking more like Jason Varitek and less like Doug Mirabelli behind the plate (please google that early 2000s Red Sox reference… I’m so proud of it!) as his knuckler cashed in to tie the game 26 seconds into the third period. 

Then I remembered that Denis Malgin was a member of the Avalanche as he scored his first goal since joining the team in December with a rocket wrister between the circles to put the good guys back on top, 3-2, just over two minutes into the final frame. How does someone who can shoot like that and score a goal like that on a goalie like that go so long without scoring?