Only 48 hours removed from a four-game east coast road trip, the Colorado Avalanche were defeated by the Tampa Bay Lightning, 1-0 Wednesday night. Both clubs battled for 60 minutes, but the Lightning ultimately stole the victory with a third period, power play goal from forward Nikita Kucherov.
Semyon Varlamov was lights out between the pipes for Colorado, recording 23 saves in the game. Unfortunately for the 30-year old goaltender, the Avs’ only goal of the night was overturned following a video review in the first period. Despite having Gabriel Landeskog’s goal overturned by the officials, the Avalanche did outshoot the Lightning in the period, 11-4.
“We want to establish a good home-ice advantage and be tough to play against here, and I think that first period that was a good start and a good first period for us,” Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie told Marc Moser of the Altitude Sports Radio following the first period.
In an eventful second period, the score remained deadlocked as neither team was able to break the stalemate. In large, both teams struggled offensively due to the stellar play of the two goaltenders, Semyon Varlamov and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
In the end, special teams made the difference in the third period though. At the 13:36 mark of the final period, Kucherov was able to cap off a stellar power play with the game-winning goal.
The Avalanche made multiple runs at the net in the final minutes, but were never able to come up with the equalizing goal. The 1-0 loss snaps a six-game point streak for Colorado.
“We knew that our commitment had to be really strong defensively, and I thought that it was,” Head coach Jared Bednar said postgame. “We competed hard, and we had good energy against one of the best teams in the league.”
The Avs will look to get back in the winning column on Thursday when Matt Duchene and the Ottawa Senators come to town.
