Colorado Avalanche

Colorado dethroned the two-time defending champions 2-1 in Game 6 en route to winning the 2022 Stanley Cup on Sunday night.

Colorado's stifling play dominated possession and held the Bolts without a shot through 10 minutes of play. Lehkonen roofed his one timer to the far side and over Vasilevskiy's glove to give Colorado the 2-1 lead. Colorado rewrote the script in the second period and rallied from its 1-0 slump with a two-goal showing and 13-9 shot advantage. The group showed resolve and resilience one final time en route to their third Stanley Cup victory in franchise history as they completed the comeback and dethroned the two-time defending champions. Nathan MacKinnon paced the Avalanche to victory with two points (1G, 1A), while Artturi Lehkonen sealed the victory with his fourth game-winning goal of the postseason. Despite going down 1-0 after the first period and having failed to close out the Lightning in Game 5, the team didn't shy away from the challenge, the group embraced it.

The Avalanche's Cale Makar was awarded the series' most valuable player as the Colorado team defeated the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

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The Colorado Avalanche defeated the reigning two-time champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night at Amalie Arena.

The Avalanche established a new franchise record with 56 wins and 119 points in the 2021-22 regular season. In Game 5, the Lightning struck first when Jan Rutta fired home a slapshot, the only goal of the first period, which saw Colorado hold a 13-11 advantage in shots. Makar lit the lamp to tie the game 2-2 but Ondrej Palat’s 11th goal of the post-season – scored in the third period –proved to be the game-winner in a 3-2 Lightning win. MacKinnon tied the game just 1:54 into the second period, posting his 13th goal of the playoffs, with assists from Landeskog and Bowen Byram. At 12:28 of the second, Lehkonen put the Avalanche in front heading into the third period. Colorado, courtesy of a Nathan MacKinnon power-play goal knotted the game at 1-1 in the second, but less than five minutes later, Victor Hedman put the Lightning back on top. The core guys that have been around, 10 years now, coming in at 18 like Gabe, and [Erik Johnson], to now, it's been amazing.

After years of playoff disappointments, the Colorado Avalanche are back atop hockey's mountain after beating the Bolts 2-1 in Game 6.

The Avalanche and Lightning dealt with at-times rough ice conditions playing late into June, something that should not happen moving forward as the league gets back to its regular schedule. While not as emotional as the past two years when Stamkos got the trophy, Colorado’s series-ending victory marks another completion of an NHL season during a pandemic – the first back to 82 games with a normal playoff format since 2019. That legacy finally involves a championship, thanks in large part to steady coach Jared Bednar, who in his sixth season found a way to focus his team on the mission at hand from the start of training camp. “That’s 20-plus years of just dreaming and wanting and working for it and just finally coming to fruition after a lot of crazy years and a lot of hard work,” Landeskog said. “They’re a team that’s looking to become a dynasty,” Makar said. Sakic, who captained Colorado’s first two title-winning teams in 1996 and 2001, used a familiar recipe to get his team over the hump.

Behind a goal and an assist from Nathan MacKinnon, the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise history by beating the Tampa ...

The Avalanche and Lightning dealt with at-times rough ice conditions playing late into June, something that should not happen moving forward as the league gets back to its regular schedule. While not as emotional as the past two years when Stamkos got the trophy, Colorado's series-ending victory marks another completion of an NHL season during a pandemic — the first back to 82 games with a normal playoff format since 2019. That legacy finally involves a championship, thanks in large part to steady coach Jared Bednar, who in his sixth season found a way to focus his team on the mission at hand from the start of training camp. "That's 20-plus years of just dreaming and wanting and working for it and just finally coming to fruition after a lot of crazy years and a lot of hard work," Landeskog said. "They're a team that's looking to become a dynasty," Makar said. Sakic, who captained Colorado's first two title-winning teams in 1996 and 2001, used a familiar recipe to get his team over the hump.

A total of 11 graduates from the Canadian Hockey League became part of hockey history Sunday as they helped the Colorado Avalanche hoist the 2022 Stanley ...

Gabriel Landeskog, Kitchener 2011: Landeskog’s two seasons (2009-11) with the Kitchener Rangers were underscored by his dazzling freshman campaign that saw him earn a spot on the OHL First All-Rookie Team after putting up 46 points in 61 games. Andre Burakovsky, Erie 2014: The Erie Otters graduate aims to raise the Stanley Cup for the second time after first doing so with the Washington Capitals in 2017-18. Nazem Kadri, London 2010: Splitting four seasons between the Kitchener Rangers and London Knights from 2006-10, Kadri helped the former claim the J. Ross Robertson Cup in his sophomore season.

The Colorado Avalanche defeated the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning to hoist the Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise history.

A freebie of any sort is catnip to Tampa Bay and won't get the Avalanche out of Florida with the Stanley Cup in tow. Walking in wrapped in a cape constructed of the opposing team's championship banner? "The lead is big and I think the start to tonight's game is going to be really important." To give Tampa Bay momentum off the hop in its building facing elimination was the exact opposite of what Makar would hope to do. The Lightning were a respectable 6-17-2 when trailing after two in the regular season and 2-5 in this postseason. The Avalanche are 9-1 in the playoffs when leading after two periods and were 39-1-3 in the regular season. It was the Avalanche who took a bad penalty just 23 seconds into the game. The Avalanche kept it in the zone, and eventually MacKinnon scored the goal to get them back into the game. Boy, did the Avalanche need MacKinnon to get going. For the Lightning, the bid to become the NHL's first three-peat Stanley Cup winner since 1983 fell two wins short. He has chased the Cup his entire career, and now he gets to raise it. For much of the Stanley Cup Final, star forward Nathan MacKinnon had been off the score sheet with one goal in five games to go with three assists.

In defeating the two-time champion Tampa Bay Lightning on a sweltering Sunday night in Florida, the Colorado Avalanche asserted that, yes, offence can win ...

“Even if we won a game, we might take our foot off the gas and start looking a little bit too forward,” Makar admits. “The last couple years, I think, has made us a stronger group, a more resilient group, a team that's been mentally tough for the bulk of the season,” Bednar said. “We have some fast skaters, but I think it's the systems we play and how fast we want to move the puck up and having the defencemen join the play. It's kind of a relentless forecheck, and whether that forecheck happens in the O-zone or the neutral zone, we want to turn it and go the other way pretty quick.” “Exciting game, exciting moment,” Bednar says. Very similar to the way I like to coach and players like to play,” Bednar says. “Our guys, especially this year, really competed and faced a lot of adversity and overcame it every single time. The Avs’ 72 wins in 2021-22 (regular season and postseason combined) tie a league record. Even after three consecutive second-round losses in the playoffs’ second round, each more heartbreaking than the last. You have to learn. You have to be able to execute. Yes, they operate in the NHL’s highest altitude.