Tampa Bay Lightning at Colorado Avalanche 6/24/22 - NHL Picks & Predictions

On Friday, the Tampa Bay Lightning play Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals best of seven series on the road against the Colorado Avalanche. Tampa Bay trails in the series 3-1 following its 3-2 overtime loss to Colorado on Wednesday. The Lightning must win each of the last three games of the series if they want to lift their third consecutive Stanley Cup. Victor Hedman and Anthony Cirelli each scored one goal for Tampa Bay in the loss.

Ondrej Palat and Steven Stamkos are the leading goal scorers for Tampa Bay with 10 each, while Nikita Kucherov has scored seven. Kucherov is the leader in assists with 19 and the points leader with 26, while Palat is second with 19 points. In goal, Andrei Vasilevskiy is 13-8 with a goals-against average of 2.57 and save percentage of .920. 

Colorado looks to lift its first Stanley Cup in 21 years with a victory at home on Friday. Colorado is within one game of the Stanley Cup after Nazem Kadri scored the game-winner in overtime for the Avalanche. Also scoring for Colorado were Nathan MacKinnon and Andrew Cogliano. Darcy Kuemper, who was pulled from Colorado's loss in Game 3, made 37 saves in goal for the Avalanche on Wednesday.

Colorado is leading the NHL during the postseason in scoring with an average of 4.50 goals per game. Nathan MacKinnon is the leading goal scorer for Colorado with 12, while Gabriel Landeskog has scored 11. Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen are the leaders in assists with 20 each. Makar is the points leader with 27 and Rantanen has 25. In goal, Darcy Kuemper is 9-3 with a goals-against average of 2.66 and save percentage of .898.