Victor Olofsson scored twice, Ross Colton also had a goal and the Colorado Avalanche beat Tampa Bay 3-2 in Denver on Tuesday night to end the Lightning’s five-game winning streak.
Scott Wedgewood made 22 saves for Colorado, which survived a furious surge at the end of the third period to improve to 3-0-2 in the past five games.
The Lightning pulled goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy for an extra skater and spent most of the final three minutes in the Avalanche zone. Wedgewood stopped one shot and was aided by his defense blocking several attempts.
Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point scored and Vasilevskiy turned aside 30 shots for Tampa Bay, which took its first loss since Oct. 23.
The Lightning struck early in the game when Kucherov stole the puck from Cale Makar behind the Colorado net and scored on a wraparound at 1:37 of the first period.
The Avalanche evened it up later in the first period on their first power-play chance of the night. Vasilevskiy made a save on Nathan MacKinnon’s close-in shot, but the rebound went to his left and Olofsson cleaned it up at 13:51.
Olofsson struck again in the second period on a fortunate bounce. Gabriel Landeskog fed Jack Drury in the slot, but he fanned on the shot. The puck went across to Olofsson, whose one-timer beat Vasilevskiy at 4:08 for a 2-1 lead.
It was his fifth goal in the past four games after he failed to score in the first 10 games of the season. Olofsson registered his first career hat trick against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 28.
Colorado extended the lead 1:13 later when Colton got a stretch pass from Sam Malinski at the Tampa Bay blue line, went in alone on Vasilevskiy and backhanded the puck off the goaltender’s skate and in.
Point cut into the Lightning’s deficit early in the third period when he skated into the Avalanche zone, maneuvered around Devon Toews and roofed a backhander past Wedgewood at 3:32.
–Field Level Media
