The Colorado Avalanche will visit the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals from Amalie Arena with a 2-1 series lead.

Below, you can look at the Stanley Cup Finals matchup on tonight’s NHL slate and some of our best bets on the FanDuel Sportsbook.

Colorado Avalanche (-110) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (-110) Total: 6 (O-118, U-104)

The Tampa Bay Lightning cut their Stanley Cup Finals deficit in half on Monday night, defeating the Colorado Avalanche 6-2. This win was a much-needed performance from the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions, who hadn’t looked like themselves through the first two games of the series in Colorado.

Brayden Point missed Game 3 and is doubtful for Game 4, while Nikita Kucherov is a game-time decision but expected to play. Those are two important bodies for the Lightning. Still, there are so many veterans on this team that they’ve been able to overcome losses like Point, specifically when they defeated the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers. A big reason for that is the Lightning being well-coached. On the Colorado side, Andre Burakovsky won’t play in Game 4, while Nazem Kadri is still considered day-to-day. 

In addition, Andrei Vasilevskiy played his most steady game of the Finals and will likely be a key factor if the Lightning have hopes of evening the series. The one thing that the Avs didn’t want to do was give the Russian netminder confidence, exactly what transpired in Game 3. In the third matchup, Darcy Kuemper looked human for the Avalanche and was pulled. Still, it was evident that for the first time in this series, the team in front of him didn’t play the team structure we’ve become accustomed to, leading to multiple defensive breakdowns. 

The Lightning were able to get secondary scoring in Game 3, which happened a lot on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals but hadn’t taken place through the first two games. If they can continue to get production up and down their lineup, that will likely be a key to their success against the high-scoring Avs. Tampa Bay has shown that if you let them back into a series, they’ll take advantage, and with the teams priced the same on the moneyline at -110, you should likely side with the experienced Lightning squad in Game 4. 

Heading into this series, many people wondered whether or not this would be a high-scoring matchup, and early on, that’s held. It hasn’t been the most balanced series, with two games decided by four or more goals, but that doesn’t matter when you’re just considering the total. The line for tonight’s Game 4 is set at six, which has been the number for the previous three games. Even though both head coaches probably won’t like it, Game 3 gave the vibe that there might be a lot of goals scored moving forward. The first three contests saw seven, seven, and eight goals scored, meaning it’s difficult not to look toward the over six again at -118. 

Best Bets: Lightning moneyline (-110), Over 6 (-118)