The Wraparound: Avalanche get second chance to take Stanley Cup from Lightning

The Colorado Avalanche will get a second chance at glory on Sunday night. Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final will take place at AMALIE Arena in Tampa Bay, and it is the potential setting for a memorable night for the franchise.

Maybe the Avalanche players felt the nerves in Game 5 up 3-1 in the series in their first attempt to close out the Lightning. It was a very good performance by Tampa Bay to give themselves another shot. And now the pressure remains on Colorado, who face the prospect of a winner-take-all Game 7 on Tuesday should they fail again to claim the Cup.

The Avalanche know the old sports cliché about the fourth win in a series being the hardest one to achieve. They understand the stakes and realize they let an opportunity slip through their grasps — something that could serve as a wakeup call heading into Sunday night.

“That’s what you’re trying to do,” said Colorado head coach Jared Bednar. “We’ve had a heck of a season to this point, job’s not done, so there’s a tremendous amount of focus and determination still left in myself and our team. You are here, it’s supposed to be fun. it’s easier for some guys to enjoy it more than others. I mean, I know how much our guys want it now, they’ve worked for it.

“So, there’s a certain amount of stress and anxiety that you have to try to put out of your head, so you can bring your best performance. Like I said, everyone [handles] it differently, but our guys have been doing a nice job with it thus far and I expect it to continue.”

Winning that fourth game won’t be easy. The two-time defending champions are not backing down and Andrei Vasilevskiy has only gotten stronger after a rough start to the series. As Adam Gretz noted on Saturday, the Lightning netminder has