Nathan MacKinnon could not find the words. Gabriel Landeskog cracked a smile and a joke.
After years of playoff disappointments, the Colorado Avalanche are back atop hockey’s mountain after dethroning the two-time defending champions.
“It was all leading up to this,” playoff MVP-winning defenceman Cale Makar said about the Avalanche’s journey.
It’s the first title for this core group led by MacKinnon, captain Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen and Makar and it follows several early post-season exits — in the second round each of the past three seasons and the first in 2018.
“It feels unbelievable,” MacKinnon said. “Some tough years mixed in there, but it’s all over now. We never stopped believing.”
WATCH l Stanley Cup presented to Avalanche captain Landeskog:
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly presents the Stanley Cup to Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog.
With a mix of speed, high-end talent and the experiences gained from those defeats, Colorado broke through this time — earning every bit of the championship by knocking off the team that hoisted the Cup the past two years. Like the Avalanche fully expected, it wasn’t easy.
After an early turnover by Makar leading to Steven Stamkos’ goal that put them in a hole and several more bumps and bruises, the Avalanche tied it when MacKinnon beat 2021 playoff MVP Andrei Vasilevskiy with a near-perfect shot and went ahead on another big goal by trade deadline acquisition Artturi Lehkonen.
WATCH l Lehkonen scores Stanley Cup-winning goal:
Colorado wins 2-1 in Game 6 to dethrone two-time defending champions Tampa Bay and claim their first Stanley Cup in 21 years.
They locked things down by holding on to the puck and not letting Tampa Bay even shoot the puck on Darcy Kuemper in the third period.
When they did, he was there. Brought in from Arizona in a trade last summer to shore up the sport’s most important position, Kuemper was solid again and made his most important save with under seven minutes left when he slid over to deny skilled winger Nikita Kucherov.
His teammates finished the job.
‘This group is just amazing’
“That’s…
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