Mikko Rantanen’s passing tone was continued, but in five out of five, both Finnish players in Colorado received bad setbacks, writes Tommi Seppälä, a journalist at Sports, from Tampa.
TAMPA. Tampa was relentlessly hot and sweaty on Monday before the third Stanley Cup final. The well-overheated temperature of over 30 degrees and the shockingly high humidity percent made it a mere pain to be outside for minutes.
However, Colorado, who started from the 2–0 lead in the third match of the series, found it cooler in the trough, as the ride against the reigning double champion was cold early on Tuesday in Finnish time.
Especially Mikko Rantanen and Artturi Lehkonen the second chain of the occupied Avalanche drifted into the frost worse once. In Rantanen’s power statistics, -2 was recorded and in Lehkonen as high as -3. Lehkonen is already in the frost for five goals in the final series. Hockey is a team game, and Lehko cannot be blamed for all five goals, but it is better to wait.
In Monday’s match, Colorado’s second-placed team still scored some important goals for the match. In the middle of the chain played JT Compher.
Rantanen’s fall asleep at his own head led Ondrei Palatin hit a 2-1 goal. Steven Stamkos instead, it got hit with a really important 4–2 hit from close range without any distraction.
Tampa won the match by five to five as many as 5–0 on Tuesday. Two days earlier in Denver, Colorado took a five-to-five game 5-0.
There are a lot of good things in the Finns’ game, but they can’t leak to their own heads. Fully in Colorado’s feet this weekend, Tampa woke up his key player at the expense of Avalanch’s second-hand. Stamkos, Palat as well have played below their level in the first two matches Nikita Kutsherov now found their game on properly.
The trio baked two goals and six power points into the stats.
It must also be said that the Colorado goalkeeper game betrayed worse once. Substituted after five goals Darcy Kuemper slipped an important 1-1 level between his legs far too easily and there was room for other hits. The goalkeeper game has been through the season and will continue to be the biggest question mark in the Colorado game.
Colorado should still be considered a sort of favorite in the series, but the setups changed significantly one night. Instead of falling to a 0-3 loss in the series, Tampa rose to 1-2. It got better on its game and found than it found ways to slow down the Colorado speed game.
Tampa gained momentum away from Colorado not only by staying on the puck better, but also by delaying the pace of the match in various ways. Tampa switched slowly, delayed the start of the game and so on. Only in the third installment did Colorado get a little four-chain mill up and running.
Tampa also played harder than ever before. Through better puck control, it got to bite more efficiently than before, and it wasn’t content to play between whistles alone. Tampa wanted a huge win, winning the Taklock 40-27 and the blocked shots 27-12.
Colorado still has no reason to wrestle. In the future, it just has to focus better on defensive play and hope the goalie game doesn’t disappoint, as it does now.
In the case of Tampa, some health concerns may be raised. First center Brayden Point dropped out of the lineup before the third game, in addition to Nick Paul as well as star pier Nikita Kutsherov took a hit on Tuesday. The kind of team Tampa will get on his feet the day after tomorrow is again a big mystery until the initial heat.
Rantanen knocks
Although Mikko Rantanen missed a couple of goals in the match against five to five, he scored two points for his account. With seven points, Rantanen is the best scorer in the final series and at the same time the Turku resident has risen to sixth place in the playoffs (17, 5 + 19 = 24).
Rantanen’s feed vibe is especially delightful.
The TPS kennel has 1.12 points per match this spring. The figure for the playoffs is the fourth highest in the entire NHL in the 21st century. And best of all, six of Rantanen’s seven innings in the final series are first passes, many even spectacular ones.
Rantanen is, in fact, the player with the most passes in his first three finals in NHL history!
Anyway, there is a rare finale dominance by a Finn. You have to go back in time as much as twelve years to find a Finn who, like Rantanen, has ruled the final series in terms of power. At the time, Philadelphia Ville Leino recorded 3 + 6 and +6 in their power stats in the six final matches.
Rantanen may make Leino even better.