Lightning fall on the road to Avalanche

DENVER — Ryan Johansen scored twice, Alexandar Georgiev made 37 saves and the Avalanche defeated Lightning 4-1 Monday night, ending Tampa Bay’s five-game point streak.

Cale Makar added a goal and an assist, while Valeri Nichushkin sealed the win with an empty-netter for the Avs, who won their fourth straight. Makar has 20 assists in November, moving the Colorado defenseman one away from matching the most in a month in franchise history. Peter Stastny holds the mark with 21 in October 1983.

Nathan MacKinnon suited up despite being under the weather and missing the morning skate. He recorded two assists to become the third player in Colorado/Quebec history to notch at least a point in each of the opening 10 home games to start the season.

Anthony Cirelli scored for the Lightning. They had a goal from Michael Eyssimont negated in the second period when the Avalanche challenged the play for offside.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots in his second game back from injury. He missed the start of the season after undergoing microdiscectomy for a lumbar disc herniation. The Lightning plan to carefully manage the workload of the 2018-19 Vezina Trophy winner.

Cirelli cut into a 3-0 deficit on a breakaway goal with 30 seconds remaining in the second period.

From there, Georgiev shut the door. He came up clutch early, too, stopping 13 shots in the first period. That included a breakaway chance by Nikita Kucherov, the NHL’s second star of the week.

Johansen got the Avalanche offense going with a goal in the first period when he took advantage of a slip by Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman. He added another in the second when he knocked home a rebound.

A crucial play in the game was a challenge of Eyssimont’s goal. On replay, it was ruled that defenseman Nick Perbix was in the zone a split second before the puck.

The shorthanded Avalanche remain without forward Artturi Lehkonen (upper body) and defenseman Samuel Girard (entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program). They dodged another potential scary injury with defenseman Josh Manson, who appeared to catch a skate near his chin while down on the ice. He later had a bandage on his face.

The Avalanche and Lightning will meet one more time, on Feb. 15 at Amalie Arena, where Colorado clinched its 2022 Stanley Cup title in six games over Tampa Bay.

The Lightning, who entered the game coming off an 8-2 rout at Carolina on Friday, finish their three-game road trip tonight in Arizona.

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BY PAT GRAHAM

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