Although the NHL regular season awards ceremony turned the attention of hockey fans a little, it could not completely divert attention from the final series of the Stanley Cup, in which there was a turning point.
Tampa Bay suffered two hardest losses at the start, but won the first meeting at the Amalie Arena and was determined to restore equality in the account.
And also to spoil the mood of Cale Makar - the only one of the participants in the decisive round of the playoffs, who won in one of the nominations.
The young Canadian was recognized as the best defender of the championship and received the Norris Trophy.
Before him, this bar was not obeyed by any of the Colorado hockey players.
The Lightning were not only left without a single award, but also delegated only one representative to the symbolic teams.
Victor Hedman became the winner, while Andrey Vasilevsky, who played another great year, and Stephen Stamkos, who set a personal record for the number of effective points (42 + 64), were left out.
Did not hit the top 15 field and Nikita Kucherov, but it was understandable.
The Russian missed almost half of the season, although this did not stop him from shooting 25 goals and 44 passes in 47 meetings.
By the number of points per game, he became the second, behind only the magnificent Connor McDavid.
Kucherov's performance in the fourth match of the series was also in question.
At the end of the third, he received a painful blow in the back from Devon Toews and was forced to leave the court during the final period.
And although Floridians mentor John Cooper was optimistic, there was no certainty until the last moment.
In the end, Nikita was in the first link, while Braden Point was again out of place.
Perhaps the Canadian did not have time to fully recover from the injury, or maybe the head coach simply decided not to change the winning squad.
And at first it seemed that the coach did the right thing.
The first attack ended with the hosts scoring the opponent, and it turned out quite curiously.
The guests managed to withstand the first wave of the offensive, but Eric Chernak was the first on the rebound.
The click of the Slovak defender turned out to be more powerful than accurate and literally “removed” the helmet from the head of Avalanche goalkeeper Darcy Kemper.
Even without the most important element of equipment, he tried to help his partners, but Anthony Cirelli could no longer cope with finishing.
Tampa opened the scoring in the 36th second and scored the fastest goal in the finals since 2006.
Then Edmonton forward Fernando Pisani took a third of a minute less.
In general, the first period was dictated by Tampa.
She didn’t just flip Colorado, but she did it confidently.
In total, Kemper had to enter the game 17 times, while Vasilevsky - only four.
Nick Paul intercepted a pass and almost put the puck into the net, Steven Stamkos attacked from a deadly position, and Ondrej Palat after driving through the net, but the Canadian goalkeeper caught courage.
At the same time, the most spectacular save still fell to the lot of the Russian.
It might seem that the rebound from the partner disoriented Andrey, but he managed to react and prevented Valery Nichushkin from distinguishing himself in a spectacular split.
However, during the break, Jared Bednar managed to bring his wards to their senses, as a result of which the course of the confrontation turned around 180 degrees.
In the second period, Colorado already hit the target 17 times, while Tampa limited itself to only nine accurate shots.
However, even this did not stop the guests from leaving for a break with an equal score.
On the curious goal of Nathan McKinnon in the majority, the hosts responded with a Hedman puck after a solo passage.
The Swede received a pass from Jan Rutta and did not share the puck with Kucherov, but he sent it exactly into the far corner and became the author of a unique achievement.
Previously, no defenseman had managed to score in three Stanley Cup Finals in a row.
However, not only Hedman wrote himself into the history of the NHL during this segment.
Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar simultaneously reached 20 playoff assists and set a club record for the Colorados.
Until that day, they shared the first line with Peter Stasny, who played for the team in the 1980s.
Then the club had not yet moved to Denver and was called the Quebec Nordiques.
The third period turned out to be the most equal, but began with another Avalanche goal.
As in the previous case, the guest hockey player was lucky to be at the right time in the right place.
But if then Vasilevsky could not react to the rebound from McKinnon's skate and cut the puck into his own net, this time he was disoriented by the rebound from the body of Andrew Colliano.
Niko Sturm was the first to finish off and tried to beat the goalkeeper with an uncomfortable hand, but only helped his partner to light his name on the scoreboard.
As a result, the fate of the match was decided in overtime, although none of the teams wanted to finish it.
Nichushkin had two great chances to score, but Vasilevsky played brilliantly, eventually making 36 saves.
But Kucherov did not have enough luck.
Kemper did not react to the most powerful "shot" of the Russian from the face-off circle, but the puck treacherously hit the frame.
Perhaps this is what broke the hosts a little, but they were not enough for an additional 20 minutes.
Avalanche looked much more fresh and charged to win, which is confirmed by a noticeable difference in hits on target (10:3).
The author of the decisive goal was Nazem Qadri, who missed 18 days due to injury.
The Canadian escaped to the rendezvous with Vasilevsky and shot right under the crossbar.
Moreover, it was so strong and accurate that the “shell” got stuck in the gate structure.
However, this was not the most discussed in the context of the Colorado winning puck.
At the time of scoring, there were not five, but six visiting hockey players on the ice at once, but the judges did not react to this in any way.
It is noteworthy that instead of MacKinnon, who was delayed on the ice, it was Kadri who came out, who later realized a one-on-one exit with Vasilevsky.
And perhaps this episode will decide the outcome of the series and will not allow Tampa to win the Stanley Cup for the third time in a row and receive the title of a dynasty team.
After all, in the entire history of only one team managed to recoup in the final of the playoffs with a score of 1:3 - Toronto in 1942.