Avalanche at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning boast three straight comeback victories to open the season and look to make it easier on themselves Thursday when the Colorado Avalanche pay a visit. The Lightning rallied from two goals down to defeat Detroit and New Jersey before getting a brilliant goal from captain Steven Stamkos with 5.5 seconds left in regulation Tuesday and beating Florida 4-3 in the shootout.
“There’s not many guys in the league that can do that,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said of Stamkos, who roofed a shot from below the left circle. “And by not many guys, you’re counting on one hand. And even then, I don’t know if you’re getting to the thumb.” It was the second goal of the season for Stamkos, who has been held to four points (three goals) in 10 career games with a minus-5 rating against the Avalanche. Colorado scored 10 goals to win its first two games of the season before getting outshot 40-18 while struggling to a 3-0 loss at Washington on Tuesday in the second of a rough back-to-back. “We didn’t match their compete and their battle level,” Avalanche forward Matt Duchene told reporters. “Our first period was really terrible and even after that we didn’t have much of a push back.”
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), FSN Sun (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (2-1-0): Colorado boasts four power-play goals in the first three games, but its penalty killers have struggled mightily while allowing two tallies in each contest (8-for-14). Nathan MacKinnon tops the team with four points (one goal, three assists) and four players own three apiece, including defensemen Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie. Semyon Varlamov has yielded eight goals on 68 shots in his first two starts and likely will be back in net Thursday with an 8-3-2 career record, two shutouts and .924 save percentage against the Lightning.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (3-0-0): Left wing Alex Killorn is off to the best start of his career with a goal in each of the first three games to go along with one assist to share the team lead in points with Stamkos (two goals) and Jonathan Drouin (one). Killorn, who scored 14 goals a season ago and had 53 in four years coming into 2016-17, has opened the season playing with center Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov. Rookie forward Brayden Point is making quite an impression early on while recording 10 shots on goal – third on the team, an assist and the shootout winner Tuesday.
OVERTIME
1. Colorado C Joe Colborne has not registered a point with only two shots on goal in two games since scoring a hat trick in the opener.
2. Drouin and MacKinnon played on the same line for the Memorial Cup champion Halifax Mooseheads in 2013.
3. The team split a pair of meetings last season with each winning in regulation on the road.