Burakovsky plays hero as Avs win electric Game 1 of Stanley Cup Final

“A bolt of energy and excitement,” goalie Darcy Kuemper described forward Andre Burakovsky’s overtime winner in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The bolt beat the Bolts and lit up Ball Arena as the Colorado Avalanche took the first game 4-3 from the two-time reigning champs—the Tampa Bay Lightning. Burakovsky’s score came at the 1:23 mark overtime after Valeri Nichushkin forced a turnover from the visitor’s Mikale Sergachev. J.T. Compher picked up the puck and shot it. Norris candidate Victor Hedman blocked it, but Nichushkin picked the puck right back up and pushed it across the slot where Burakovsky one-timed it past the towering Andrei Vasilevskiy.

“Burky has scored some big goals for us. Not surprised to see it,” Avs Captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “That was awesome.”

Colorado out-played Tampa on Wednesday. The Avs had 15 more shots, 15 more scoring chances, six more high-danger chances, and a 3.52-2.22 lead in expected goals.

“The right team won the game,” Tampa Head Coach Jon Cooper said. “We got better in us. I don’t think by a country mile we gave them our best game, and they still were a shot away.”

The Bolts had to come back. A rare poor first period from Vasilevskiy saw the stud goalie give up as many goals in the first 20 minutes as he did in the final three games of the Eastern Conference Final. In fact, Vasilevskiy had never allowed three in the first period in his illustrious 99 game playoff career.

But two Tampa goals in 48 seconds—one a beauty and one a softie—tied the game at 3-3 in the second period, and it stayed that way until the overtime winner.

“The goals that we gave them we made major mistakes on,” Jared Bednar said. “So there are some things that we have to correct, for sure.”

“We’re here to win a series, and we don’t know what that’s gonna come 4, 5 ,6 or 7 games,” Tampa’s Captain Steven Stamkos said. “We’ve done a great job of making adjustments after losses. Maybe we sat back too much. They are a really fast team, and sometimes in gGame 1 you have to feel it out a bit.”

Colorado has won Game 1 in all four rounds, and Tampa lost Game 1 in three of their four. The series is far from over, but the Avs answered the bell and took advantage of some rare shaky play from Vasilevskiy.

“I hope I’m not alone; I was pretty nervous all day,” Landeskog said, who scored the game’s first goal just over seven minutes in. “The fans were amazing; I tried to enjoy the moment. The nerves were there, but that was okay we dealt with it.”

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