Avalanche Game 55 Recap: Can We Go Home Now?

And so it ends.

The Colorado Avalanche's six-game road trip came to an end against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Ah, Amalie Arena. The very site where the Avs won the Stanley Cup in 2022. So many memories. The goals from MacKinnon and Lehkonen. Gabriel Landeskog lifting the Cup over his head, in what is his most recent act with the Avs. Absolutely epic.

Regarding the Avs' most recent visit to Amalie Arena, it was a big matchup. After all, the league's two points leaders, Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon, were going at it head to head pretty late in the season. The goalie matchup was Justus Annunen in net against the great Andrei Vasilevskiy. It was pretty back and forth during the first frame, and it honestly looked like we would see no scoring at all in the first period. Bowen Byram changed that by making it 1-0 for the Avs, and the assists came from Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon, marking Point #88 for the latter. Speaking of "Point," Brayden Point tied it up on a weird goal, and shortly afterwards, Kucherov gave Tampa the lead.

So it was 2-1 Bolts after one, and regarding the scoring, it was Kucherov 91, MacKinnon 88.

Only one goal was scored in the second period, and it was Byram again. Ross Colton (in his first game at Tampa Bay as an opponent) and Artturi Lehkonen had the assists. Speaking of Lehkonen, he gave the Avs the lead just over three minutes into the third period; Drouin and MacKinnon assisted, and that was Point #89 for the latter. We all remember the last time Lehkonen scored a go-ahead goal in Tampa Bay. Unfortunately, this would not be a game winner. Twenty seconds after Lehkonen's go-ahead goal, Steven Stamkos (who scored TB's lone goal in Game 6 in 2022) tied it up, and one of the assists went to, you guessed it, Kucherov. So that's 92 points for Kucherov. He would get #93 four minutes later with another goal to give TB the lead. The Avs attempted to press for the tie, but would not get it, as Anthony Cirelli and Nick Perbix would score empty netters six seconds apart.

The Avalanche lost, 6-3, in a game that saw MacKinnon fall just a bit further behind in the Ross and Hart race. Let's talk about Nikita Kucherov, shall we? Hell of a player, absolute beast, but I didn't think he'd be up there in points. Yes, Connor McDavid's injury knocked him down some pegs, but I'm pretty surprised to see Kucherov up top like this. MacKinnon being up there is such a pleasant surprise. Other than the Lady Byng (for sportsmanship) and the Calder, MacKinnon's never won a big-time solo trophy. He should have won the Hart Trophy at least twice, and he's never had Ross numbers. MacKinnon has a chance at both this season, but with how biased awards voters are against Avs players, he has to win the Ross to even have a shot at the Hart. Right now, he's four points behind in the Ross race, but all it takes is one big performance to get within range.

The Avalanche's road trip is over, and it was a disaster. 1-4-1 in the six-game trip. That's not good. The Avs are four points behind Dallas for first place in the Central Division, but there's still a lot of time. The Avalanche will finally return to Ball Arena on Sunday against the Arizona Coyotes, which is followed by another home game against the Vancouver Canucks.

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