Avalanche use OT to defeat Lightning in Game 1 of Stanley Cup Final

DENVER -- Andre Burakovsky one-timed a shot into the net, went down to one knee and pumped his right fist three times.

Three more wins and the Colorado Avalanche will be Stanley Cup champions.
Burakovsky scored 1:23 into overtime from the right face-off circle off a pass from Valeri Nichushkin, and the Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final at Ball Arena on Wednesday.
"I wasn't thinking too much," Burakovsky said. "It was kind of a crazy feeling. Just great to be here in this Final and help the team win a game."
Gabriel Landeskog and Nichushkin each had a goal and an assist, Mikko Rantanen had two assists, and Darcy Kuemper made 20 saves in his first game since sustaining a lower-body injury in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final on May 31.

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is here Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, CBC, SN, TVAS).
Colorado is 13-2 in these Stanley Cup Playoffs and has won Game 1 in each of its four series.
"We're getting better," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said.
Nicholas Paul, Ondrej Palat and Mikhail Sergachev scored for the Lightning, who were down 3-1 after the first period. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves but allowed more than two goals in the first period of a Stanley Cup Playoff game for the first time (99 games).
Colorado scored three goals on 15 shots in the first period.
"There are some positives tonight for us in this game, but the right team won the game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Give them credit for pulling it out. We've got better in us, though. I don't think by a country mile we gave our best game and we still had a chance to pull it out. But to beat a talented team like that we've got to bring a better game than this."
Brayden Point had an assist and played 17:59 for Tampa Bay in his first game since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Toronto Maple Leafs on May 14. The forward missed 10 games with a lower-body injury.

The two-time defending champion Lightning also lost Game 1 of the 2020 Cup Final but came back to beat the Dallas Stars in six games.
"The mindset is we're here to win a series and you don't know when that's going to come," Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos said. "Four games, five, six, seven, you never know. We've done a great job of making adjustments after losses. So, we'll look to do that."
The Avalanche came out strong in the first period despite not playing since June 6, when they won Game 4 of the Western Conference Final to finish off a sweep of the Edmonton Oilers.
Landeskog gave them a 1-0 lead at 7:47 of the first period. Rantanen's shot from the left face-off circle got through Vasilevskiy, and Landeskog got behind the goalie and put it in.
Nichushkin scored 1:36 later to extend the lead to 2-0 at 9:23.
"I hope I'm not alone, but I was pretty nervous all day and coming off of warmups the fans were amazing," said Landeskog, the Colorado captain. "You're trying to enjoy the moment as much as you can but you're human and the nerves are there. That's OK, you just have to deal with it and I thought as a team we did a good job of that tonight."

Paul cut it to 2-1 at 12:26 of the first. But Colorado took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play when Artturi Lehkonen scored in front on a redirection of Rantanen's pass to make it 3-1 at 17:31.
"Maybe we were just trying to get a feel for them; it's got to be the other way around," Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. "We have to come out and set the tone. We knew they were going to have a good start. We just weren't as ready as we'd like to be."
Tampa Bay was ready in the second period.
Palat cut it to 3-2 at 12:51. Nikita Kucherov deked around Colorado defenseman Devon Toews and put a backhanded pass onto Palat's stick in the slot for a redirection.
Sergachev tied it 3-3 48 seconds later at 13:39.
"They scored two quick ones, kind of shocked us a little bit," Rantanen said. "I think we were playing well before that, but in the second in that stretch we were losing battles and were not breaking the puck out as clean as we were in the first and start of the second."
After the Lightning tied it, the Avalanche reset and played a better third period, outshooting them 12-5.
They went on the power play with 1:24 remaining in the third when Pat Maroon flipped the puck over the glass from the defensive zone and got a delay of game penalty.
The Avalanche didn't score on the man-advantage that carried 36 seconds into overtime, but they won the game less than a minute later to take Game 1, which history shows puts them in the driver's seat in the Stanley Cup Final.
Teams that win Game 1 hold a series record of 62-20 (75.6 percent) in a best-of-7 Cup Final, including 49-10 (83.1 percent) when they win it at home.
"A resilient win," Landeskog said.