Colorado soaped to Tampa Bay with 7-0 – Mikko Rantanen was noted for 0 + 3: & quot; It is vital to keep the home field advantage, against Rangers we saw how good Tampa is at home & quot;

The second game in the NHL playoffs final series was no nail-biter. Colorado defeated Tampa Bay by seven goals and took the lead with 2-0 in matches.

Colorado followed up the sweaty 4-3 overtime victory in the first final game by playing Tampa Bay.

– This was a step forward for both me and the team. It feels like their own game goes hand in hand with the team, says Mikko Rantanen to Yle after the match.

It was full swing from the drop, Valery Nitushkin gave Colorado the lead with 1-0 before the match had time to be three minutes old and just before the first period came halfway, it was Colorado’s advantage with 15-1 in shot attempts.

The clock stopped at 13.52 when Mikko Rantanen got his first assist in the match. Rantanen took a shot and the Swede André Burakovsky had no problem shaving the return.

Colorado led 3-0 in the first period break, 5-0 in the second and 7-0 when 60 minutes had been played. The last time an NHL final ended in a similar victory was in 2011 when Boston crushed Vancouver 8-1.

Andrej Vasilevsky of Tampa Bay’s goal did not have his best day at work, but was still not replaced. Once before, in February 2020, Vasilevsky has conceded seven goals in a single NHL game.

In Colorado’s cage, Darcy Kuemper was in turn spotless with 16 saves on 16 shots.

Rantanen, who was noted for 0 + 3, was the match’s scorer, also played until Nitjushkin’s 4-0 full hit and Cale Makar’s 7-0 goal. Makar became a two-goal shooter in the third period and in connection with the 6-0 goal, the remarkable hill showed proof of his excellent skating.

Both Makar and Nitshushkin were noted for 2 + 0 in the match.

Colorado also had to do without its injured second center Nazem Kadri in the second final. Rantanen played in the second chain together with JT Compher and Burakovsky, but Burakovsky was injured and forced to throw in the towel in the second period.

The third final will be played Tuesday night in Tampa and coach Jon Cooper has a lot to think about if the reigning champions will be able to turn the series around.

In the second final, it was a tactical victory for Jared Bednar and Colorado who received dividends for active play as the Tampa Hills had obvious problems.

– Today it worked. We managed to put pressure on them throughout the match. Most recently, it only succeeded during parts of the match, says Rantanen.

A look at this year’s playoffs tells us that it does not pay to calculate Tampa Bay. In the first round, Tampa was down 1-2 and 2-3 against Toronto, but won 4-3. In the Conference Finals against the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay turned 0-2 to 4-2 in games.

– It was vital that we managed to keep our home ground advantage, says Rantanen.

– In the series against Rangers, we saw how good Tampa Bay is at home. First we will enjoy this moment and then look ahead.

Updating article …

Results

Colorado – Tampa Bay 7–0
COL: Artturi Lehkonen 0 + 0, +/- 0, 15.38
COL: Mikko Rantanen 0 + 3, +2, 15.38

Colorado leads 2-0 in matches.