2. Goaltending Matters
Coming into the series, the goalie matchup was identified as the biggest difference between these two sides. Andrei Vasilevskiy is the league’s greatest equalizer and Colorado has just managed to win in spite of Darcy Kuemper’s merely average goaltending.
Game five proved to be the biggest difference in goal as two of three goals against by Kuemper probably should have been stopped. Jan Rutta’s first period goal especially should have been stopped and now the Lightning should have even greater urgency now to just shoot from everywhere. You never know.
Vasilevskiy has proven to always get better as series go along, He helped the Lightning steal one on the road. You could even say he should have had the goals he let in as they were all on second chances after struggling to fight off the initial shot. If this series turns into which goaltender plays better, then the Lightning will win 99 times out of 100. And Colorado should be very nervous about that.