Tampa Bay (0-1) at Colorado (1-0)
When: Saturday, June 18th 2022
Where: Ball Arena,
Denver, CO
Time: 8:00 ET | TV: ABC
Opening Odds: Colorado -151/6
The Colorado Avalanche showed little rust in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday night by striking early and holding on to win in overtime of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Game 2 is set for Saturday night at Ball Arena, as the Avs look to hold home ice advantage before heading back to Tampa for Games 3 and 4. Andre Burakovsky scored 1:23 into overtime to give Colorado a 4-3 win over the Lighting in Game 1, while Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and an assist each. Artturi Lehkonen also scored for Colorado and Mikko Rantanen had two assists. Darcy Kuemper returned to the lineup and made 20 saves for the win. Mikhail Sergachev, Nicholas Paul and Ondrej Palat scored goals for Tampa Bay and Andrei Vasilevskiy turned away 34 shots.
Colorado opened as a -158 favorite to win Game 2, with a total of 6.0. These teams have played pretty tight games of late, with the last four games being decided by a single goal and three of them went to overtime. The Over has cashed in five of the last six games including Wednesday’s Game 1. Tampa Bay now heads into Game 2 as a +200 underdog to win the series after opening Game 1 at +145. Colorado extended their winning streak to six games and are 13-4 over their last 17 home games. The Avalanche are -285 favorites to win the series after opening at -180.
Tampa Bay won’t panic after losing Game 1. This is the third time in four playoff rounds this year that they’ve dropped the first game of a series. In the Eastern Conference finals, they lost the first two at the New York Rangers and still won the series. Vasilevskiy allowed more than two goals in the first period for the first time in 99 career playoff games as the Lightning trailed 3-1 after one. Tampa Bay saw Brayden Point return to the lineup after missing the previous 10 games with a lower-body injury. Point recorded an assist in just under 18 minutes of ice time. Tampa Bay also lost Game 1 of the 2020 Final, before going on to defeat Dallas in six games. The Lightning were outshot by Colorado 38-23 in Game 1.
The Avalanche’s lack of Finals experience didn’t show in Game 1. Burakovsky, who scored the overtime winner, is one of only two Colorado players to have won a Stanley Cup. The Avalanche have won Game 1 in all four rounds of these playoffs and have gone 13-2 when scoring first in the game. Teams that win Game 1 hold a series record of 62-20 in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final, including 49-10 when they win it at home. Forwards Nazem Kadri (right thumb) and Andrew Cogliano (right hand) both remained out of the lineup in Game 1 and are listed as day-to-day. Colorado converted 1-of-3 power plays to raise their success rate to 31.3 percent in the playoffs.
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Tampa Bay seems to always get down in the series before making the proper adjustments. In the last three postseasons, the Lightning have lost back-to-back games just once. This team knows how to bounce back. I’ll take them again in Game 2.
Pick: Lightning +135
