Makar, Nichushkin among top performers for Avalanche in Cup Final Game 2

DENVER -- Who played well in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final? Sometimes it's easy to tell, sometimes it isn't. NHL.com graded the players in the 7-0 victory by the Colorado Avalanche against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday. The Avalanche lead the best-of-7 series 2-0, with Game 3 in Tampa on Monday. Here are the players and trends that stood out the most.

Honor roll

Andre Burakovsky (Avalanche) -- Burakovsky scored his second goal of the Final on a rebound at 13:52 of the first period, giving the Avalanche a 3-0 lead, but got the Ball Arena party started with a sublime pass to Valeri Nichushkin for the game's first goal on the power play, 2:54 in. Burakovsky was at the right-side wall and recognized a soft spot in the Lightning's penalty killing unit and saw his teammate break for the net, leading him perfectly for the tip-in. Burakovsky didn't return to the game after playing two shifts early in the second period.
Valeri Nichushkin (Avalanche) --The forward scored two goals, has three in the Final and eight in the playoffs. He has been dangerous nearly every time he's been on the ice in the first two games of the series and finished with a team-leading five shots on goal in Game 2, playing 17:23.
Cale Makar (Avalanche) -- The dynamic defenseman said after he had no points and no shots on goal in Game 1 that he'd look to improve his effectiveness in Game 2. He delivered on the commitment, scoring two goals in the third period, including a strong individual effort and rush for a shorthanded goal at 2:04, and a power-play goal at 9:49. His quickness, offensively and defensively, was a huge asset for Colorado in Game 2.
Darcy Kuemper (Avalanche) --The goalie made 16 saves for his second NHL playoff shutout. Plain and simple, he didn't have a lot to do but he did the most important thing in Game 2, making sure he didn't give the Lightning anything easy. He gave them nothing at all. After Kuemper was injured and missed the final three games of the Western Conference Final, a sweep of the Edmonton Oilers, there were some questions as to his readiness to face the defending Stanley Cup champions, but he's clearly been up to the task so far. Kuemper made 20 saves in a 4-3 overtime win in Game 1.
Zach Bogosian (Lightning) --There was very little to like from the Lightning in Game 2, but Bogosian's competitiveness was noticeable throughout. He is by no means a fancy defenseman but was in the fight from start to finish, breaking up some of the multitude of plays that were coming at him. Bogosian finished the game with 25 shifts for 15:46, had six hits and two blocked shots. One of those blocks was on a slap shot by Erik Johnson four minutes into the third period. Bogosian went down hard, but was able to finish the game. The Lightning will need more of that kind of gameness in the Final.
RELATED: [Stanley Cup Final coverage | Stanley Cup Final schedule]

Stock watch

Josh Manson (up) --The Avalanche defenseman was strong in Game 1, banging opponents around and not giving up an inch. He showed his range of abilities in Game 2, leading a first-period odd-man rush that was a 4-on-1 at one stage. Manson carried the puck, looked at his passing options then chose to shoot, burying a perfect shot over the right pad and under the blocker of Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. He was plus-three and had three shots on goal and five hits in 18:47 of ice time.
Andrei Vasilevskiy (down) -- The consensus was that the Lightning goalie would have a bounce-back game after allowing three goals in the first period of Game 1. Vasilevskiy did gather himself in that game and was strong the rest of the way, finishing with 34 saves, but the expectation was off the mark for Game 2. Vasilevskiy again allowed three first-period goals on Saturday, this time on the first eight shots, and was unable to stop the damage after that. Although there wasn't a weak goal among those he allowed against so many quality Avalanche scoring opportunities, there were no momentum-switching saves early on, when it could have mattered.
Ball Arena crowd (up) --They brought their normal strong support for Game 1, but the Ball Arena faithful dialed it up a notch for Game 2, and well before it turned into a runaway. It could have been that they were better primed with the pregame outdoor concert by GRiZ, but the enthusiasm had increased and the chants of, "We want the Cup!" were more frequent. The final seconds of the third period, celebrating the one-sided victory, were deafening. Now it's up to the Amalie Arena fans to see if they can match that level for Game 3 with their team down 2-0 in the series.
Avalanche penalty killing (up) --It was another strong game from Colorado's penalty killers, remaining tight in their defending formation and stifling any seam passes. When it was time to get aggressive, they forced quickly and it resulted in their second straight game going 3-for-3 on the kill. In Game 2, it was already 4-0 by the time the Lightning got their first power-play opportunity, but the Avalanche's penalty killers were smart and aggressive at the right times and left few openings that might have sparked a rally.
Nikita Kucherov (down) --There wasn't much spark from the dazzling Lightning forward, who played an important role in helping his team get Game 1 to overtime. In Game 2, Kucherov had no shot attempts in 18:38 of ice time and like so many of his teammates, found himself chasing the puck most of the game, with little room to make plays when they did possess it.

What we learned

Avalanche exploit any weakness
For the second straight game, Colorado scored in the first 10 minutes and used the spark to get into its game. The Avalanche kept pouring it on in Game 2, continuing to take the puck to the net, sometimes with blazing attack speed and sometimes with surgical precision to outfox the Lightning's attempted coverage. Colorado coach Jared Bednar will always find video clips to show his players what they can do better, but it's highly likely the video he chooses coming out of Game 2 will be of the positive reinforcement kind, the things that work if they're determined to play with pace.
Lightning have work to do
Tampa Bay has not faced a dynamic opponent like Colorado in the playoffs the past three seasons and struggled to stay in their defensive-minded structure in Game 2. What may be more unnerving is that the Lightning's patience and good habits, which are so much part of their DNA, were way off in this game and they appeared to get rattled by late in the first period, down 3-0. There is ample reason to question whether it's more than better execution that's needed to contain the Avalanche.