Colorado Avalanche hold off Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in a nail-biting finish that had playoff intensity written all over it. With less than 10 seconds remaining and the net empty, Cale Makar blocked a crucial shot while Nikita Kucherov kept finding the puck in a frantic scramble that nearly forced overtime. We break down Scott Wedgwood's surprise start over Mackenzie Blackwood, Gabriel Landeskog's first-period fight that ignited the bench despite his ongoing offensive struggles, and Ross Colton's patient goal that squeezed past Andrei Vasilevskiy. The analysis reveals Tampa Bay's third-period stretch passes exposed defensive vulnerabilities other teams might exploit, while heat maps show Colorado's deliberate strategy of generating high-danger chances directly in front of the net. Bottom-six forwards dominated performance metrics, with Josh Manson, Victor Oloffson, and Sam Malinski leading the way against a Lightning team that pushed the top line hard.