In a series tie, game three usually plays as either a massive tilt in momentum or keeps a steady pace of equality between the two teams. Tonight, the Tampa Bay Lightning dominated the Dallas Stars in a game three victory by the score of 5-2. Leaving a perception that Tampa might leave Dallas behind in the bubble and on their way back to Tampa Bay with Lord Stanley's Cup.
Not to get too far ahead of themselves there is a lot of series left and the Stars are no slouch. After such an impressive win tonight though, it is hard not to think about being only two wins away from Tampa Bay’s second Stanley Cup.
In the first period it was spectacular speedster Nikita Kucherov with the first goal of the game, beating Anton Khudobin after a sloppy shift by Dallas. Following the Kucherov snipe was Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, making his return to the line up and firing his first shot in 200 days, that just in fact happened to go in. Stamkos had not played in a game since February 25th and for the first time in 80 years, Stamkos is only the second player to score a goal on his first shot.
Tampa Bay enjoyed a dominant first period but the Stars did shine some light on a comeback in the first frame. Jason Dickinson put Dallas on the board beating Tampa goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy who was off his angle on the shot. Dallas, tried to put Tampa on the backfoot after trimming the first period lead, outshooting the Bolts 12-1 after going down 0-2.
Heading into the second period, Dallas looked to keep getting traffic and pucks in front of Vasilevsky, unfortunately for the Stars, a leftover powerplay was converted as Victor Hedman was able to put one home for the Lightning to extend the lead. From the point on, Tampa Bay blew the doors off the Rogers Centre and went onto a huge three goal second period. Brayden Point and Ondřej Palát, added to the lead extending it to 5-1 heading into the final frame.
Starting the third period, Dallas had decided Anton Khudobin’s night was over. Khudobin, was 5-1 after a playoff loss this postseason but was steamrolled tonight by all four of Tampa Bay’s lines. Jake Oettinger came in as a replacement and did not allow a goal in his period of work, Dallas was also on the powerplay on three separate occasions in the third period only to come up empty handed. Miro Heiskanen was credited with the second goal of the game for Dallas but it had come off of some bad play in front of Vasilevsky and the puck found its way in.
Tampa Bay looks to be in full control, with captain Steven Stamkos back head coach Jon Cooper must have even more confidence now to roll his lines at ease. Especially with Nikita Kucherov’s 23 point postseason, the most points since 1984, Tampa Bay can erupt at any given minute in this series.
As for Dallas, it is back to the drawing board, the goaltending performance from Khudobin was not his best tonight. Although, the play in front of him was not any better. It is going to take a full team effort to even this series back up.
Game four of this Stanley Cup final will be Friday night, where Dallas will look to counterpunch after getting absolutely flattened by Stamkos and the Lightning.
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