Face-off: 2000 ET, 26/06/2022
Arena: Amalie Arena
Tampa Bay were never going to give up their hold on the Stanley Cup without a fight and they are still scrapping away against Colorado.
The Lightning battled to a 3-2 victory on the road at Ball Arena on Friday night and now trail by just one with two matches left to play.
Two of the previous four encounters went to overtime and 4.1 for that to happen again in Game 6 heads our Tampa Bay Lightning vs Colorado Avalanche predictions.
Tampa Bay Lightning Odds
Tampa Bay were twice pegged back after taking the lead in Game 5, with Valeri Nicushkin and Cale Makar cancelling out Jan Rutta and Nikita Kucherov strikes.
However, Ondrej Palat put the Lightning ahead again with 6:22 left in the third period and this time they maintained the advantage.
Head coach Jon Cooper said: “You’re down in the series, the cup is in the building, you’re in a great environment for the home team – and how do you show gamesmanship?
“You do everything they just did. You get the lead, you defend, you kill off penalties, score on the power play, and then when you need the big goal at the end, you get it.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves for the two-time defending champions, who are trying to become only the second team to win the Final from 3-1 down.
“We extend the season and that’s what we wanted to do,” commented captain Steven Stamkos. “It was a grind, but we found a way. Great effort and now we’ve got to do it again.”
Victor Hedman provided an assist for Palat’s decider to make it 16 in the playoffs and 1.91 for him to add to that tally stands out from the Tampa Bay Lightning vs Colorado Avalanche odds.
Colorado Avalanche Odds
Colorado couldn’t quite finish the job off in front of their own fans, despite outshooting Tampa Bay 37-29.
Captain Gabriel Landeskog insisted nobody will be pressing any panic buttons, though.
“It’s not supposed to be easy and it’s not going to be easy,” he said. “We knew that coming into this and Vasilevskiy had another good night.
“We felt good about our game, we tied it up in the third and then obviously they created a slot shot there that squeezes through Kuemps.
“So, it is what it is. Short memory in the playoffs – and that’s what we’re going to do.”
The early encounters in this series were open affairs, but things have tightened up a bit over the past two games.
Just one goal was scored in the opening period of each of those contests and it could be cagey during the first 20 minutes once more.
Let’s add 1.85 for under two goals in P1 to our Tampa Bay Lightning vs Colorado Avalanche betting tips.
Additional stats
Series results:
Game 1: Colorado 4-3 Tampa Bay (OT)
Game 2: Colorado 7-0 Tampa Bay
Game 3: Tampa Bay 6-2 Colorado
Game 4: Tampa Bay 2-3 Colorado (OT)
Game 5: Colorado 2-3 Tampa Bay
Regular-season head-to-head: Tampa Bay 3-4 Colorado (SO), Colorado 3-2 Tampa Bay
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