The Avalanche came from behind for a victory and the Bolts are on the brink with game five in Denver and Tampa Bay facing elimination.
The best pre-game analysis came from Mr. Chelios when informed of Mr. Kadri playing with a broken thumb protected by a cast, then commented, “I would whack it every chance I got”.
To begin the game Mr. Kuemper had unsuccessfully channeled Mr. Gump Worsley as Tampa Bay defenseman Mr. Cernak took a powerful shot that went off the goalies mask popping the straps.
And as the stick blade of Mr. Cirelli assisted the mask’s trajectory downwards the puck fell in front of Mr. Cirelli for the easy goal and a Lightning 1-0 lead only 36 seconds into the first period.
After that Tampa Bay played a defensive, protect the one-goal lead to the end of the game style that is camouflaged by the 11 SOG 2 statistical disparity reflecting mostly harmless shots by the four and a half minute mark of the first period.
Tampa Bay gets their first power play with three minutes remaining and allowed Colorado two short-handed SOG as the period finishes up with 17 SOG 4 Tampa Bay advantage.
Four minutes into the second period the Avalanche go on their first power play and just over a minute later the puck deflects off of Mr. MacKinnon’s skate blade for his first goal of the Stanley Cup Finals and the game is tied at one.
With less than nine minutes to play in the second period, Mr. Hedman takes a weak no-look backhand from near the faceoff dot that should have been stopped but eluded Mr. Kuemper’s blocker side over the pad for the Tampa Bay 2-1 lead.
Nearly three minutes into the third period Colorado quiets the Amalie Arena crowd with their second goal generated by the fourth line as Mr. Cogliano notches his third of the playoffs with a rare even-strength goal against the Lightning to tie the game at two.
The rest of the third period is filled with Tampa Bay Captain Mr. Stamkos blocking shots, Colorado’s Mr. Johnson handing out dasher board rattling checks, Tampa Bay scrumming it up, announcers starting their “next goal wins” rhetoric along with mentioning the lack of penalty calls.
For the second time in four games, the teams went into overtime and the Avalanche are hustling and get the first SOG, Colorado’s Mr. O’Connor gets a breakaway shot with the stick of Mr. Hedman on his glove, and there is a shot off the post then a crossbar and the Avalanche are relentlessly pressuring.
At the 12:02 mark of overtime, Mr. Kadri accepts a pass while entering the blue line and skates through Mr. McDonagh and around Mr. Sergachev to lift a shot up over Mr. Vasilevskiy into the net and it wedged into the top side of the netting.
This caused everyone for a moment to ask, “…did it go in”, and indeed it did for the Colorado 3-2 overtime victory and a 3-2 Stanley Cup Finals lead heading back to Denver for an elimination game five.
The drama does not end until HC Cooper vaguely infers in his post-game interview that the overtime-winning goal should not count, and Avalanche players were surprised when informed about HC Cooper’s comments at their press conferences.
Mr. Kadri was quoted as saying, “I’m not quite sure what he (HC Cooper) was thinking, why it shouldn’t have counted, the puck hit the back of the net, end of story.”
Also surprisingly HC Cooper does not agree with the on-ice official’s judgment/interpretations of Rule 74.1 (too many men on the ice), as well as almost coming to tears at the podium as he did not want to specifically say why.
The rule states: “When a player is retiring from the ice surface and is within the five-foot (5’) limit of his players’ bench, and his substitute is on the ice, then the retiring player shall be considered off the ice.”
Mr. MacKinnon was well within that distance when Kadri received the pass to enter the offensive zone, and the final call is with the on-ice officials, no replay or review can be utilized for a non-call.
Get ready for Friday Night in Denver as the streamers and balloons are up, the marching band is tuning up, and the parade is ready to start, with the Stanley Cup on-site for presentation, all that remains is an Avalanche home victory.
Tampa Bay can win this elimination road game and they have what is required to get the job done, with these two similar/evenly matched teams, anything is possible.
Buffalo Winter 
What game did you watch? Have you ever even seen a hockey game before last night?
http://hockeychat.ca/page-2792.html
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Well, I went to Hockey Chat and read the sour grapes, the off-going player was within five feet of the bench before Mr. Kadri touched the puck in the offensive zone…the purple circle photo proves this.
Not knowing how the on-ice officials enforce Rule 74.1 is no reason for tears, learn and go forward is my advice.
I even wrote out the rule so there would be no mistake, it was a good goal, and remember there are no reviews or replays so whatever the on-ice officials declare, that is it.
Now as far as Mr. Cirelli and how his stick blade assisted Mr. Kuemper’s mask downward no matter how many times you watch the video it still highlights Mr. Cirelli’s stick blade making contact with the goaltender’s mask during its descent.
If the Lightning could score more than twice this would not have been an issue, but the Avalanche does seem to have the better team after the first four games, I am hoping for another nail-biter in Denver this Friday.
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How fitting that Kadri scored the OT winner considering what Mr. Chelios had said before puck drop.
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Kadri took possession of the puck AT HIS OWN BLUE LINE whilst MacKinnon was down the ice, miles from the bench:
“A closer look at Nazem Kadri’s overtime dagger reveals the Game 4 hero accepting his pass in the middle of the ice at the blue line about four seconds before Nathan MacKinnon — whom he was replacing — gets back on the Colorado bench.”
FFS, there is even multiple camera angles clearly showing it. CBC caught it, just like they caught the blatant off side in the other game.
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Based on my memory Kadri was between centre ice and the Tampa blueline when he took the pass. At that time the camera angle didn’t show the location of the other players, at least in live view.
There is a rule called “improper change” where the ref blows the whistle and there’s a faceoff at centre ice with no penalty called. Refs hardly ever make that call anymore.
Before he even scored, the whistle probably could have been blown, at the very least, because of the number of players (on both teams) on the ice.
Bottom line is that there is no review allowed on those calls, so if the refs don’t see it live, there’s nothing that can be done. So much for officiating. You win some, you lose some. That’s hockey. Even in the playoffs.
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Bottom line is I’m sick of these horrible NHL refs. May as well get Josef Kampala.
I’m also tired of all the mouth-breathing morons and there (making up for yesterday’s “their”) ‘put the whistles away; let them play’ garbage.
They’re is a rule, enforce it!
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I agree
…the announcers during game four were talking about non-called penalties, I believe every infraction an official sees should be whistled if it is the first pre-season game or game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals and no matter if it is the beginning of the first period or the last 30 seconds of the third, and apply this to Overtime as well
I appreciated The Hockey News in 1988, I used to purchase it at a newspaper stand (too cool), I cannot get any digital data from that time, only microfiche I have been informed, anyways they did a great running article on the referees and linesmen as far as who called what and when and they kept track for one season and published the results because at the time it was reported only the NHL had school/courses for “Referees” and they did not publish their statistics on the on-ice official’s performances.
I also can appreciate confusion in grammar, thier and there, are tricky for some, lol
…also I do not appreciate tears at the podium, this last game’s drama might have hurt but Tampa Bay is still there, it is not as painful as watching your team get eliminated from the Stanley Cup Finals because of a rule change that was not made public but Mr. Bettman assured us that there was an inner-office memo about the new rule concerning a skate toe in the blue ice of the goaltender’s crease, I almost handed HC Cooper a box of tissues…but I digress
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I did not know about the “improper change” rule, interesting, thank you for that
…you win some, you lose some, lol, too perfect
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It wasn’t “confusion in grammar”. It was a brain fart. Honestly noticed it as I was clicking the ‘post’ button. Was like watching my locked car door close whilst the engine was running.
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lol, I had done that before…and broke my back window to get in
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