Avalanche Win Stanley Cup

The Colorado Avalanche are the champions of the National Hockey League. It probably took them one more game than they'd planned last week, but once the celebration began, the number of games it took to raise Lord Stanley's goblet was of little consequence. Sunday night in Tampa, Nathan McKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen scored for the Avs as the champions of the Western Conference, went into the home of the eastern winners and claimed the Cup with a thrilling 2-1 victory. The Avs, who led the championship series 3-1 going into Friday's game in Denver, wanted to raise the world's most beautiful trophy to the sky in their home rink. However, the Lightning had other ideas. Tampa won another thriller, this time with a late goal to claim a 3-2 victory. That set up Sunday's Game 6 in Tampa and the Avs would not be denied. Colorado won the mug four games to two in the final and over the course of the playoffs, outscored their opponents by 30 goals. There Avalanche took out Nashville in four straight in the opening series, beat St. Louis 4-2 in the Western semifinal, took out Edmonton in four straight in the Western Conference final and beat Tampa in six in the championship series. That's a 16-4 mark to win the Cup. "Disbelief. It's crazy," MacKinnon told ESPN and ABC Sports immediately after the game. "I can't wait to hug my family. Geez, it's hard to describe. I didn't really know what it would feel like to actually win it, but just seeing all these warriors battle, it just feels unbelievable. Words can't describe how I feel right now. "Nothing but amazing. I have no complaints. Some tough years mixed in there, but it's all worth it now. We never stopped believing. The core guys that have been around, 10 years now, coming in at 18 like Gabe (Landeskog), and Erik Johnson, to now, it's been amazing. It's so amazing to see guys like Andrew Cogliano, Jack Johnson, all the veterans, Josh Manson, guys that haven't won it yet. It's so amazing." The Avalanche were clear favourites entering the final series despite the fact the Lightning were two-time defending champions. Tampa desperately wanted a three-peat and they played well enough too force a Game 6 in front of the home crowd, but in the biggest game of the 2021-22 post-season, a usually offensive-minded Avalanche team played outstanding defence to claim their first Cup since 2001 and the third in franchise history. In what turned out to be the championship game, the Avalanche actually had to come from behind. Tampa's Steven Stamkos opened the scoring at 3:48 of the first period. Nikita Kucherov won a battle along the boards, took the puck from Colorado's brilliant Cale Maker, banged the puck off teammate Ondrej Palat's skate and right onto the stick of Stamkos who beat Colorado netminder Darcy Kuemper through the wickets. McKinnon tied the score with a one-timer from the left circle at 1:54 of the second period and then, about 10 minutes later, Lehkonen completed a three-on-two rush with a brilliant shot to the glove side of Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Then, in the third period, the Avalanche just completely shut down the home side. Colorado held Tampa to one shot on goal through the first 12 minutes of the third period and then to only four shots over the entire final 20 minute frame. Colorado outshot Tampa 30-23 overall. Each team had one power play opportunity and neither team scored with the man-advantage. Cale Makar won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the post-season. He was also this year's Norris Trophy winner as the NHL's best defensemen. While it was Colorado's third Stanley Cup (1996 and 2001), it was the second Cup win for veteran Avalanche fourth-liner Darren Helm from St. Andrews, Manitoba. The 35-year-old Helm, often called the greatest player in the history of the Keystone Jr. B Hockey League, won the Cup with Detroit in 2008. It was his first season with Colorado after 14 years in Detroit and it may well have been last. The Avalanche won 56 games during the regular season and another 16 in the playoffs. 72 wins in a full NHL regular season and playoffs is a record. "I just look at these guys and all the work these guys have put in," Makar told the media in the news conference afterward, . "'E.J.', Nate, 'Landy,' Mikko [Rantanen], they've been here so many years, ups and downs. It's just so awesome to be part of them getting rewarded, all their hard work and their success over the years. Just so proud of the boys, honestly. It's just so awesome. "You grow up, you see that thing as a kid and you have picture of it on your wall. All I think about is everybody that got me here. My family's in the stands, so it's amazing wherever they are. It's surreal." Meanwhile, on the other side of Tampa's Amalie Arena, heads were not hung in defeat for long. "It's the end of our playoff victory streak," said Bolts coach Jon Cooper. "But it's not the end of our run." Cooper vowed that the Lightning would do everything they could to return next spring.