NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt Harrington: Avalanche could put it away Sunday; Lightning with a chance to tie series in game six

Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov (86) is congratulated in game 5 after scoring a second period goal against the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, Friday, June 24, 2022, at the Ball Center in Denver (AP News photo)

On the NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt:

#1 The Colorado Avalanche came into game 5 Friday night thinking that with a win they would be able to hoist the Stanley Cup on their home ice after taking a 3-1 lead. It was not to be as the Tampa Bay Lighting scored a goal in each of the first, second and third periods to come away with a 3-2 win and to stay alive for another game.

#2 The Lightning’s Ondrej Palat scored the game winner in the third period at 6:22 and Tampa Bay was able to defend keeping the Aves out of their net for the one goal win.

#3 Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots and looked like he was back in old form again shutting out the Avalanche in the first period while allowing one goal in each of the second and third periods.

#4 The Lightning also got goals from two reliable sources Nikita Kucherov and defenseman Jan Rutta which proved to be a total team effort by the Tampa Bay for the win.

#5 Game 6 is on deck in Tampa Bay this will give the Lightning a chance to tie the series on home ice or the Avalanche a chance to put it away on the road at Amalie Arena.

Join Matt throughout the NHL Stanley Cup Finals for coverage at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt Harrington: Lightning and Avalanche face off tonight in game 2

The Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) takes a leap over the Colorado Avalanche forward Erik Johnson (6) during second period action in game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals at Ball Arena in Denver on Wed Jun 15, 2022 (AP News photo)

On the NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt:

#1 The Colorado Avalanche are a team that never says die. They swept the Edmonton Oilers in the third round the playoffs and advanced to Finals and took the first game of the Finals in overtime 4-3 to take a 1-0 lead over the visiting the Tampa Bay Lightning.

#2 The Avalanche came right out and lived by their namesake scoring three goals in the first period to take a 3-0 lead.

#3 Never count the Lightning out of it they scored a goal in the first period and two in the second period to tie up the game 3-3.

#4 The Aves Andre Burakovsky scored the tie breaker in the overtime stanza at 1:23 for the 4-3 win. Colorado is a team that you can never turn your back on.

#5 Same clubs meet Saturday for game 2 at Ball Arena in Denver. Tell us how you see the goaltenders in this contest for the Lightning Andrei Vasilevskiy matched up against the Avalanche’s Darcy Kuemper.

Join Matt for analysis on the NHL Finals podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NHL Stanley Cup Playoff podcast with Len Shapiro : Hurricanes up 2-0 with series going back to MSG; Oilers-Flames take game 3 to Calgary; Aves take a 2-1 lead over St Louis

On the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs podcast with Len:

Carolina Hurricanes’ Brendan Smith, center, celebrates his goal with teammates Sebastian Aho (20) and Teuvo Teravainen (86) in second period action at PNC Arena in Raleigh in game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Fri May 20, 2022 (AP News photo)

#1 The Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Antti Raanta stopped 21 shots on his way to a 2-0 shutout Friday night his first playoff shutout in game 2 of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The win puts the Hurricanes up 2-0 over the New York Rangers.

#2 After watching the first two games of this series how concerned does the proposition of going down in the first two games have to be for Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant and can the Rangers consider going back to MSG for the next two games a chance to get back into this thing?

#3 Last Wednesday the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames battled to a 9-6 Flames win. The Flames had to breath a sigh a relief in that one up 3-1 they gave up four goals in the second period to the Oilers but came back to win game 1.

#4 In game 2 on Friday night the Oilers had an opportune moment when the Oilers Zach Hyman took advantage of a break away in the middle of the third period with the score tied at 3-3. Hyman got a shot over the glove of the Flames goaltender Jakob Markstrom to put the Oilers ahead 4-3 at 10:14.

#5 A thriller in Denver the Colorado Avalanche get a big win taking it to the St Louis Blues with a game 3 win the Blues were up front but the Avalanche came back to overtake the Blues 5-3 and take a 2-1 series lead. The Avalanche got two goals from Artturi Lehkonen.

Len Shapiro filled in Matt Harrington for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoff podcasts heard each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt Harrington: Canadiens backs to the wall down 3-0; Lightning win game 3, 6-3

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price puts a stop on the shot from Tampa Bay Lightning’s Ross Colton and Anthony Cirelli in the first period of the Stanley Cup Finals game 3 at the Belle Centre in Montreal (AP News photo vid Canadian Press)

On the NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt:

#1 The Tampa Bay Lightning Victor Hedman in his post game interview on Friday night said of the Lightning’s 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens not so fast as Tampa Bay is now up 3-0 he said what happened in the bubble winning it all last year was great but saying “were not there yet”

#2 The Lightning wasted no time scoring twice in each of the early parts of the first and second periods

#3 The Lightning’s Tyler Johnson who moved up to the second line from the fourth line after Alex Killorn was out with an injury scored twice for the second time in the Finals.

#4 Hedman and Nikita Kurcherov both scored a goal and an assist and Jan Rutta and Blake Coleman both had empty netters and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots talk about team work.

#5 Game 4 is set for Monday night at the Belle Centre and the Canadiens will no doubt be working hard on a few things during their morning skates between now and then what are some of the thing they need to improve on to win game 4 and avoid a sweep in the Finals.

Matt Harrington did the NHL podcasts throughout the 2020-21 season and will be back in September to bring you more of the NHL podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt Harrington: Habs and Bolts drop the puck Monday night in Tampa Bay

The Tampa Bay Lightning pose for a post game photo with the Prince of Wales Trophy for winning the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Islanders in game 7 on Fri Jun 25, 2021 in Tampa Bay (AP News photo)

On the NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt:

#1 Matt, let’s take you through the game sevens before we talk about the big match up on Monday night between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night. The Lightning coming off a 3-2 overtime loss against the New York Islanders in game 6 with the series tied got a narrow win over the Isles 1-0 on Friday night.

#2 Tampa Bay goaltender Andre Vasilevskiy stopped all 18 shots by the Islanders for the shutout 1-0. The shutout marked his fourth shutout in these playoffs.

#3 The Lightning are starting to look like a dynasty of sorts this is their second straight trip to the finals in two seasons and you can just look at the job they did not only in the regular season but post season that this is a team on a mission.

#4 The Lightning will be hosting the first game of the Finals on Monday night against the visiting the Montreal Canadiens tell us about some of the players to look for on both sides.

#5 The goaltenders for this series is brining lots a thrills into these finals for the Canadiens Carey Price he’s been key to saving a lot of games for the Habs especially during the Vegas Golden Knights series and for the Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andre Vasilevskiy.

Join Matt during the NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast on Saturdays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt Harrington: Lightning just get by Stars in OT 5-4 to take 3-1 series lead

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s Kevin Shattenkirk (22) who scored the game winning goal in overtime at 6:34 against the Dallas Stars in game four at Rogers Centre in Edmonton (Canadian Press photo)

On Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt:

#1  Matt let’s go over the scoring in game 4 of the Finals on Friday night, John Klinberg scored his fourth goal of the playoffs to open the game in the first period at 7:17 Stars lead 1-0. Joe Pavelski (11) scores at 18:28 Stars take a 2-0 lead. The Bolts Brayden Point (12) scored at 19:27 cut the Starts lead to 2-1 to end the first period.

#2 Point (13) gets his second goal of the game to tie up the game 2-2 in the second period at 2:08, Corey Perry (3) gets the Stars the lead again 3-2 with a goal at 8:26 and the Lightning’s Yanni Gourde (7) scores at 18:54 to end the second period with a 3-3 tie.

#3 Alex Killorn scored for the Lightning to put them ahead once again at 6:41  to make it 4-3. The Stars Joe Pavelski(12) in the third period scores at 11:35 and once again the game is tied 4-4 forcing overtime.

#4 The game winner comes from the Lightning’s Kevin Shattenkirk (3) at 6:34 in overtime a power play goal for the 5-4 Tampa Bay win and the Lightning go up 3-1 in the series.

#5 Matt game 5 is on tonight the Lightning now have the momentum to win and end the series four games to one after getting a 3-1 series lead.

Matt Harrington does the NHL Stanley Cup Finals Saturdays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com