An overtime goal from Andre Burakovsky was enough to give the Colorado Avalanche game one in the 2022 Stanley Cup Final. They looked to be cruising to an easy win when Artturi Lehkonen put them 3-1 up with a power-play goal towards the end of the 1st period.
However, the two times defending champions Tampa hit back with goals from Ondrej Palat & Mikhail Sergachev in the second. The third period failed to produce a winner but it only took 1.23 of OT for the Avalance to capitalize on an error to secure the win.
Game One Highlights Below
Colorado with home advantage will be pleased to get off to a winning start and their lack of big-time experience didn’t show. They had 38 shots and won the takeaway battle easily 17-4. Still, despite this level of dominance they only scraped the win. This was Colorado’s biggest test so far as they have pretty much strolled through the playoffs.
Any Hope For The Lightning?
You don’t become two-times defending champions without some resilience. Tampa showed in the conference finals that they cant be written off. They welcomed Brayden Point back after a month’s layoff and although he looked rusty, he should be sharper in game two. They didn’t play at all well and still forced OT. Colorado did win both regular-season meetings, however, they were both one-score affairs and one of those was in OT.
Colorado was our pre-season prediction for the title, however, despite this win, we are not at all confident and doubt they will get another sweep. Overall we hope that this has hopefully set the tone for what should be a close and exciting final.
Up Next
Game Two is scheduled for Saturday, June 8th in Colorado. Then the series switches to Tampa for games Three & Four on the 20th & 22nd. All games faceoff at 8.00 ET
