The Avalanche were hoping to repeat the highs of victory in Tampa Bay that they felt in both Games 4 and 6 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final.
Instead, their performance on Thursday mirrored that of Game 3, where the Lightning dominated all night and outscored Colorado by a wide margin. The result was the fifth shutout loss of the season. The Avs suffered its first one-sided loss in weeks, falling 5-0 to Tampa Bay at Amalie Arena in the first of two rematches between the NHL’s best a season ago.
Corey Perry opened the scoring in the first before Brandon Hagel scored twice and Mikhail Sergachev added another in the second period. The Lightning kept the foot on the pedal, adding a fifth tally in the third.
Goalie Alexandar Georgiev, who had won his previous four starts for the Avs, surrendering just six goals in the process, made 27 saves in the loss. His counterpart, Andrei Vasilevskiy, earned his first shutout of the season, stopping all 30 Colorado shots.
Following morning skate, Avs coach Jared Bednar announced that All-Star defenseman Cale Makar would miss the last two games of the road trip. Makar was clipped in the head by Pittsburgh’s Jeff Carter in a play that did not result in a penalty or supplemental discipline against the Penguins’ veteran forward.
Makar finished that game.
Without him, defenseman Andreas Englund re-entered the lineup as a seventh defenseman. Colorado continued to dress seven blueliners and 11 forwards.
The Avs ended January and entered the lengthy All-Star Break with a 7-1 record in their last eight games. Since returning, they’ve suffered 2-1 and 5-0 losses in consecutive games, collecting one of four points. While Tuesday’s overtime loss in Pittsburgh was a much better performance, the Avalanche are once again crawling out of a break.
Six weeks ago, the Avalanche entered the holiday break on a four-game winning streak and won just one of their first eight coming out of it. The tough streak dropped them out of playoff contention before a six-game winning streak elevated them into the Central Division’s top three.
Despite the loss to Tampa, Colorado could still have third place in the Central Division at the end of the day, assuming the Minnesota Wild don’t collect a point in Thursday’s matchup against Vegas. The Golden Knights led 5-1 over the Wild through two periods.