The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 this evening in a game that displayed a looser approach from the hometown team.
Early on, the Avalanche swarmed the Lightning with an aggressive forecheck and bursts of speed. The Avalanche might not be a good team, but they do have an impressive set of fast forwards that can punish teams. Less than 90 seconds into the first period Gabriel Landeskog did just that.
Landeskog recovered a puck that had bounced away from Nikita Kucherov near the left faceoff circle and immediately drove towards Peter Budaj.