Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog got his team on the board first with a powerplay goal, but goals by Anthony Cirelli and Ondrej Palat had the Lightning their first lead of the series by the end of the first.
Nick Paul scored 1:26 into the second, and Landeskog got his second of the game just under five minutes in to cut the lead to 3-2. From then on, it was all Tampa Bay, as they scored the next three goals (all in the second) to win game three 6-2 and make the series 2-1 for Colorado heading into game four.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finally looked like his postseason self as he stopped 37 of the 39 shots he faced to get the win. Darcy Kuemper struggled with his heaviest workload of the series, getting pulled after allowing five goals on just 17 shots. Backup Pavel Francouz came into relief, letting in one goal on ten shots.
