Andrey SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsLeave to the authorTampa Bay Lightning hockey players defeated Colorado in the third match of the Stanley Cup final and closed the gap in the series. Nikita Kucherov had a hand in the possible heroic comeback of the reigning champions. The Russian scored two assists, repeated the next achievements of Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Gordie Howe, but could not finish the match due to injury. The previous match, “Tampa” with “Colorado” left behind a number of serious questions. One of them: «Are the Thunderbolts good enough to qualify for the Stanley Cup this year?» This question is fundamentally wrong, because, having defeated the very strong Toronto, Florida and Rangers during the playoffs, the Lightning hockey players proved that they are rightfully the main contenders for the championship. After a crushing defeat from the Avalanche with a score of 0:7, John Cooper, the head coach of Tampa, pointed out this: “Everyone sets different tasks here. Now we are facing a task that we have not yet faced, and, you know, we have to overcome it. It's time to get together and do it. No, this is not an ideal situation for us, but is it insurmountable? We had a comeback playoff and our team has everything it takes to achieve the goal. We need to focus more on ourselves than on an opponent who challenged us that we have not yet seen. «A completely fair and, most importantly, more relevant question follows from Cooper's words:» Colorado «appeared for Tampa» an insurmountable barrier? «In the course of the entire season» The Avalanches have never lost to the defending champions, neither in the regular season nor, more importantly, in the playoffs. If you compare the Colorado with other Lightning rivals on their way to the Stanley Cup, then the Avs look almost perfect. Huge depth of composition, excellent good combinations in defense and attack, great endurance, which allows forechecking throughout the match. Of the vulnerable, only the position of the goalkeeper stands out, however, when compared with Andrey Vasilevsky, not only Darcy Kemper, but also any other goalkeeper on the planet in general will be inferior in the class. Such a skilled team like Tampa not only learned from previous defeats, but also found pain points in Colorado. John Cooper's wards were not even at all embarrassed by the attacking onslaught already familiar from “avalanches” in the debut of the meeting, when the puck went into Andrei Vasilevsky's goal twice within three minutes. One of them was scored by Valery Nichushkin, but his goal was canceled due to offside — Cooper's staff correctly read the moment and requested a challenge. The author of the second was Gabriel Landeskog. His goal has already been counted, although Vasilevsky clearly had complaints about possible interference with the goalkeeper. This time, Cooper took no chances, accepting the decision of the judges. mozallowfullscreen=»mozallowfullscreen» allowfullscreen=»allowFullScreen» frameborder=»0″>
