DENVER — For the first period Saturday night, the Avalanche looked every bit like a team that had won three of its last four while flashing a bounce-back ability that was absent last season.
They traded scoring opportunities with the NHL’s winningest team, Tampa Bay, and goalie Jonathan Bernier made a number of flashy saves that had the Pepsi Center crowd believing in an upset.
Then the floodgates opened in the second, as the Lightning scored twice within 19 seconds and followed that up with two more lamp-lighters in the period en route to hanging on for a wild 6-5 win.
By the time Colorado (15-15-2) finally got on the board via Gabriel Landeskog’s 11th goal of the season to make it 4-1 late in the second, the visiting team’s offensive assault had the Avalanche stunned and the boo birds coming out from all corners of the arena.
All four of the Lightning’s second period goals came by way of unchallenged crossing passes that resulted in wide-open looks for Tampa Bay right in front of the net.
To begin, Victor Hedman’s long pass up ice found a zooming Nikita Kucherov in a seam between two Avalanche defenders, and the Russian beat Bernier one-on-one to draw first blood.
Then, another slick Tampa Bay pass, this time by Tyler Johnson, went to Anton Stralman right in front of the crease. Stralman nearly whiffed completely on the shot, but managed to nick the puck, which took an odd bounce and petered past Bernier to make it 2-0.
Hedman and Yanni Gourde had the next two scores for Tampa Bay, which proceeded to add to its advantage 2:29 into the third on another goal by Stralman that made it 5-1 and sent fans headed for the exits.
But in the face of the large deficit, Colorado flashed a resiliency that has become commonplace as of late, even if it came too late on an evening that ended up being the most combined goals in an Avalanche game this season.
Two tipped goals by Landeskog in just over two minutes gave the captain his second career hat trick and reinvigorated what remained of the crowd. Then Nathan MacKinnon weaved his way through the Tampa Bay defense and put home a wrist shot in the top right corner to make it 5-4 with 9:22 remaining in the game.
But the Lightning seemed to shut the door on the comeback when Mikhail Sergachev knocked in a loose puck off a rebound to give Tampa Bay their third four-on-four goal of the evening and a 6-4 advantage.
But the Avs again cut the lead to one, 6-5, on MacKinnon’s goal at 14:14, but Tampa Bay held off Colorado, which put on great pressure in the final minute with its goalie pulled. Landeskog assisted on both goals, giving him five points for the game.
