The Colorado Avalanche have taken the lead in the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals after a 4-3 win over the reigning champs Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the series. The Avalanche sealed the victory thanks to forward Andre Burakovsky’s goal in overtime.
The Avalanche had a furious start to Game 1, rushing to a 3-1 lead before the end of the first period thanks to goals from Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, and Artturi Lehkonen. Nicholas Paul scored the lone goal for the Lightning.
At this point, it seemed that Colorado had an easy game ahead, but Tampa Bay showed once again why you should never write them off. The Lightning bounced back in the second period and tied the result by scoring two goals in less than a minute. Ondrej Palat scored with 12:51 left on the clock, and Mikhail Sergachev followed with another goal just 48 seconds later.
Neither team managed to score in the third, sending the game to overtime. It then took Burakovsky less than two minutes to get the puck into the back of the net and give his team an important lead in the series.
“I just saw [J.T.] Compher get the puck through the neutral zone and win battles,” said Burakovsky after the game. “And I tried to get out as quick as possible, and then obviously Val [Nichushkin] got the puck back in and made a great play to me and it was up to me to shoot it.”
The Avalanche is currently looking to get its third Stanley Cup and first since 2000-01. On the other hand, the Lightning are chasing a three-peat and fourth trophy in total.
