Lightning stay alive by beating Avalanche in tight Game 5

Dreams of a Stanley Cup three-peat remain alive for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning fought through injuries and a raucous Ball Arena crowd to beat the Avalanche in Game 5 by a score of 3-2.

Colorado remains a win away from the Cup with a 3-2 series lead. Game 6 is Sunday night (8 p.m. ET) at AMALIE Arena in Tampa Bay.

As you’ll see below, Ondrej Palat scored the game-winner almost 14 minutes into the third period to win it. While the Avalanche fought back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to tie things up, the Lightning fought off elimination.

Side note: Ondrej Palat probably deserves more hype for being “clutch.”

European-born players with more career playoff GWG than Palat (12):

Jagr (16)Forsberg (14)Kurri (14)Malkin (13)

— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) June 25, 2022

Heading into Game 5 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, many expected the Avalanche to come out on fire, and wondered if the Lightning could survive those first 5-10 minutes. Instead, it was a fairly buttoned-down start.

Maybe chalk some of it up to some Lightning power-play opportunities messing with some of the flow? (The Lightning continued their power play struggles by going 0-for-2, but the Avalanche couldn’t connect on their lone opportunity in the first period.)

Via Natural Stat Trick, both teams only managed two high-danger chances apiece at 5-on-5 during the first period.

The only goal of the opening 20 minutes sure didn’t look like a high-danger chance. Once again, Darcy Kuemper allowed a goal he’d “want back.” This time, it was a Jan Rutta shot:

Just a HEATER from Jan Rutta to open the Game 5 scoring! #StanleyCup

NHL EDGE Speed presented by @Verizon pic.twitter.com/Qn0Ebn6mmj

— NHL (@NHL) June 25, 2022

This thread goes into greater detail, but long story