Vegas Goes Up Two Games on Avalanche

Jack Eichel (Boston University) scored the tying goal and then assisted on the eventual game-winner, both in a two-minute span midway through the third period, as the Vegas Golden Knights topped the host Colorado Avalanche, 3-1, on Friday night in Game Two of the 2026 NHL Western Conference final in Denver. Vegas now leads the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoff series, two games to none.

Ross Colton (Vermont) scored the game-opening goal for Colorado, which had fallen, 4-2, in Game One on Wednesday. Colton's goal stood up from the first period on until Eichel knotted matters in the final frame, before Vegas went ahead and then added an empty-net tally for insurance with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. The top-seeded Avalanche, who were missing all-star defenseman Cale Makar (UMass) for the second straight game, outshot Vegas, 30-25, and won 34 of 58 faceoffs on the night.

Game Three is Sunday night in Las Vegas.

ADDENDUM: The Golden Knights rebounded from a 3-0 deficit after the first 20 minutes of Game Three to lock up a 5-3 victory and move within one game of their third Stanley Cup Final in their nine-year existence.

Avalanche Put Wild on Brink of Elimination

Jack Drury (Harvard) set up the game-winning goal in the third period, and the Colorado Avalanche moved one step away from the Western Conference Final with a 5-2 victory at the Minnesota Wild last night. Colorado now leads the best-of-seven 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs series, three games to one.

Ross Colton (Vermont) put the Avalanche up, 2-1, in the final frame before Nico Sturm (Clarkson) tied matters less than three minutes later for the Wild. After Drury's heroics, Colorado closed out the contest with two empty-net goals, the second by Brock Nelson (North Dakota), and outshot Minnesota, 34-21, on the night.

Game Five and a potential clinching contest for the Avs is Thursday night in Denver.

Former NCAA Players Changing NHL Places (2023)

Former NCAA players have been changing places lately in the National Hockey League, since the start of June. Listed below are those players, in alphabetical order by last name, along with their school, former NHL club, and new NHL club, per sportsnet.ca:

• Shane Bowers (Boston University) - Boston to New Jersey 

• Ross Colton (Vermont) - Tampa Bay to Colorado

• J.T. Compher (Michigan) - Colorado to Detroit 

• Kevin Hayes (Boston College) - Philadelphia to St. Louis

• Alex Iafallo (Minnesota-Duluth) - Los Angeles to Winnipeg

• Steven Kampfer (Michigan) - Detroit to Arizona

• Alex Newhook (Boston College) - Montreal to Colorado

• Cal Petersen (Notre Dame) - Los Angeles to Philadelphia

• Jonathan Quick (UMass) - Vegas to New York Rangers 

• Reilly Walsh (Harvard) - New Jersey to Boston 

• Sean Walker (Bowling Green) - Los Angeles to Philadelphia

NOTE: List may not be all inclusive.

Players in bold won the Stanley Cup while with their last NHL club. 

Lightning, Wolves Claw Back into NHL, AHL Finals

The losers in the previous Stanley Cup and Calder Cup finals games both bounced back on Monday night.

The two-time defending NHL champion Tampa Bay Lightning rebounded from an early deficit—twice, in fact, as an early Colorado goal was disallowed due to an offside—with three consecutive goals en route to a 6-2 win over the visiting Avalanche in Game Three at Amalie Arena. Colorado still leads the best-of-seven series, two games to one.

Ross Colton (Vermont), who scored last year's Stanley Cup clinching goal in the final against Montreal, set up tonight's game-winning goal just 1:26 into the second period, to make it 3-1 Lightning at the time. Cale Makar (UMass) assisted on both Colorado goals. Game Four is Wednesday night in Tampa.

In the AHL's Calder Cup Final, the host Chicago Wolves followed up an overtime loss on Sunday by scoring the first five goals Monday on the way to a 6-2 victory over the Springfield Thunderbirds at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. Andrew Poturalski (New Hampshire) led the way for the Wolves with a goal and three assists. The best-of-seven series is now tied at one game apiece, and will shift to Springfield, Mass. starting on Wednesday.

Colton Powers Tampa Bay to Second Straight Stanley Cup Championship

Rookie forward Ross Colton (Vermont) wasn't part of the Tampa Bay Lightning's Stanley Cup championship last year in the bubble in Edmonton.

He keyed this one by scoring the only goal of the game tonight in Tampa Bay's 1-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, at a sold-out Amalie Arena in Florida. The Lightning won the series, four games to one, to earn the third Stanley Cup crown in team history, the first coming in 2004.

Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh (Wisconsin) assisted on Colton's goal, a re-direction directly in front of the Montreal net with 6:33 remaining in the second period. The Lightning become the first back-to-back Stanley Cup champs since Pittsburgh in 2016-2017, and just the second NHL club to do so since Detroit in 1997-1998.

Colton, 24, from Robbinsville, N.J., joined the Lightning this year after two seasons with Syracuse (AHL). He scored a goal in his NHL debut, and ultimately tallied nine goals and three assists for 12 points in 30 regular-season outings, before adding four goals and two assists for six points in 23 Stanley Cup Playoff contests. He played two NCAA seasons at the University of Vermont (2017, 2018), where he collected 28-22—50 points in 69 career outings with the Catamounts.

Besides McDonagh and Colton, who became the first rookie to score a Stanley Cup winning goal since 2003, other members of this year's Lightning team with NCAA ties included Alex Killorn (Harvard), Blake Coleman (Miami), Curtis McElhinney (Colorado College) and assistant coach Jeff Halpern (Princeton).

Colton, Ducharme Represent UVM in NHL

The University of Vermont was well-repped in the NHL earlier this week.

First, former Catamounts forward Ross Colton scored his first career NHL goal in the Tampa Bay Lightning's 3-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday. The goal also stood up as the game-winner for the New Jersey native, who skated at UVM from 2016 to 2018 and put up 28 goals and 50 points in two seasons in Hockey East. Colton, 24, was drafted 118th overall by Tampa Bay in 2016 following his second junior campaign with Cedar Rapids (USHL), and has spent the last two years skating with the Lightning's top minor-league affiliate in Syracuse (AHL).

Also on Wednesday, former UVM forward Dominque Ducharme was elevated from assistant to head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. Ducharme, who previously served as head coach with both Halifax and Drummondville in the QMJHL, played at Vermont from 1991 to 1995 when the Catamounts were still a member of the ECAC. In 129 career outings, the Quebec native tallied 54 goals and 148 points in NCAA play. He went to play professionally in both the ECHL and AHL, and also in France before entering the coaching ranks in 2002-03 as an assistant with the University of Québec-Trois-Rivières.