In the third period, Ondrej Palat scored the go-ahead goal to help the Bolts force a Game 6. There is a time and a place for it.
Colorado's fate in the Stanley Cup Final was decided by a questionable penalty call in the fifth game that helped the Bolts.
Going into Game 5, Bednar's team had a chance to win the Cup at home. A tripping penalty against Cale Makar in the second period led to a power-play goal from Nikita Kucherov that helped the Lightning earn a victory.
Bednar didn't like that it was the difference in the outcome.
Bednar didn't like the call because he didn't think there was any intent. I don't believe he was looking at that guy. He looked to me as if he tripped over his stick. It is a difficult one. Their only power play goal was on that one. That hurt and it stung. But it is what it is, right? Roll with the punches.
After the game, he tried to dodge questions about the penalty by saying he hadn't seen a replay yet and that he was focused on Colorado's goal.
"I don't want to talk about the refs," he said. We need to fight through that. There will be discrepancies game to game with different people. The thing is what it is. Emotions cannot be taken into that. It doesn't happen very often but at the end of the day you have to focus.
Minor penalties to Alex Killorn and J.T. Compher caused the sides to play 4-on-4. Colorado's penalty kill was 2-for-2 on the night, but couldn't hold off Kucherov when he hit Kuemper.
The game was tied at 1 when the Lightning took a 2-0 lead. Colorado tried to keep the focus on the positives despite the fact that the man advantage came about in their favor.
"That's unfortunate," he said. I'm not sure if you can say it is unwarranted. We weren't able to kill that one. We did not get enough pucks through on their goalie. I don't know if that's the reason why we lost.
Friday's game was the second in a row where the spotlight was on the officials. Jon Cooper walked out of his news conference after he said he didn't think the game-winning goal should have counted. The missed call was the reason for that.
Colorado was prevented from pulling Kuemper until less than a minute remained because of too many men on the ice. Kuemper's overall play in a 26 save performance was assessed as "okay" by Bednar, and the 4-on-3 marker continued to loom large for the netkeeper.
Kuemper liked the game. They scored on the call there. The difference was that.
After a loss in the 4th game, the team proved it could turn the page. Colorado has to do the same thing as the series moves back to Florida for Game 6 on Sunday.
Gabriel Landeskog wasn't getting into the officials. We're not doing that, they can continue to do that. The focus is on our game. We'll watch some video tomorrow to make sure we're ready for the next game.
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