Stanley Cup final game two: Tampa Bay Lightning at Colorado Avalanche prediction

Free NHL tips, best bets and analysis for Stanley Cup final Game two between Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning at Ball Arena, Denver on Saturday night.

Where to watch

Premier Sports 1, 1am

Best bet

Tampa Bay Lightning to win Game two
2pts 27-20 bet365, Hills

Preview

Colorado Avalanche took the first game of the Stanley Cup finals in overtime, but there are reasons to think Tampa Bay Lightning can level matters in the second clash in the best-of-seven series.

Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had a shocking opening period, letting in three goals in the first 20 minutes.

One of those came while the Avalanche were on a five-on-three powerplay, but the other two were pretty soft for a netminder of the Russian's calibre.

He recovered well, however, stopping the next 22 shots as regulation time ended 3-3.

Tampa have a habit of starting their series slowly.

They were hammered 5-0 by Toronto in their opening post-season match and lost 6-2 to New York Rangers in game one of the conference finals, before winning both series.

The Lightning coaching staff will have learned a lot from the first game and these are two well-matched teams.

Three of the last four meetings between the cross-conference rivals have now been decided in overtime, and at the very least it looks a closer match than the odds would indicate.

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