Andre Burakovsky Praised for OT Winner as Avs Beat Lightning in Game 1

How about that for a Game 1?

Andre Burakovsky gave the Colorado Avalanche a 1-0 advantage in the Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday night, scoring the game-winning goal one minute and 23 seconds into overtime to give the Avs a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Not surprisingly, his huge goal was the talk of Twitter after the game:

Burakovsky was given his flowers, and justifiably so, but this was a wild game that played out over three acts.

Act One: The Avs jumped to 2-0 and 3-1 leads behind goals from Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen.

Act Two: The Lightning, showing the poise of a two-time defending champion, pulled even behind goals from Ondrej Palat and Mikhail Sergachev within a minute of one another.

Act Three: The two teams, after the explosive opening periods, played to a stalemate in the third period before Burakovsky called game in overtime.

We've got all the early makings of an epic series here, folks.

The Lightning will look to bounce back in Colorado during Saturday's Game 2 at 8 p.m. ET (ABC/ESPN).