NHL Stanley Cup Final Game Night: 9-21-20 Stars v Lightning
Lightning strike early, hang on late to even series.
DAL-2
TB-3
Series Tied 1-1
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 2 goals on 29 shots for the victory. Arguably he won the game for the Lightning late in the Second Period when he allowed them to go into the intermission up 3-1 despite a flurry of scoring chances against on the penalty kill. He keeps showing flashes. I keep waiting for him to put it all together on one of those unconsciously ridiculous good streaks.
First Period
11:23 TB Point (10), (Kucherov, Hedman)(PP)
14:22 TB Palat (9), (Kucherov, Hedman)(PP)
15:16 TB Shattenkirk (2), (Coleman, Cirelli)
Second Period
14:43 DAL Pavelski (10), (Klingberg, Radulov)(PP)
Third Period
5:27 DAL Janmark (1), (Klingberg, Radulov)
Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov were the game's first and second stars.
Way better energy from the Lightning tonight having shaken off their Islanders series hangover late in Game One, and between their improved intensity level and some minor strategic tweaks to counter what Bowness sprung on the Lightning in Game One the team got off to a great start drawing some penalties they cashed in on and generally owning the puck at 5v5 for the first 34 minutes of play. Cedric Paquette rang a post that could've made it 4-0 and ended the night early, but the Lightning saw that and a few other great chances to really psychologically wound the Stars go by the boards before getting themselves in penalty trouble late in the Second Period and allowing the Stars to swing the momentum a bit. The Third Period was hardly mistake-free, but to the Lightning's credit they did play a pretty 50/50 final 20 to eventually take the W and even the series.
Still lots of work to do against a spirited Dallas team that still has a lot of belief, but there's some seeds in the last four periods that you can see possibly growing into a winning formula for the Lightning. At 5v5, they're unlocking Dallas offensively in a way the Stars aren't used to. In particular, they had no answer for Kucherov and his line tonight, but really all the top three lines had their moments. Special teams remains one colossal adventure in both phases, PP and PK, but tonight they got a lot better and quicker puck movement from their top-PP unit and that makes all the difference. Without Stamkos, they can't have the plodding pace. They've got to zip it around fast if they want to make it work. And they need to stay out of the box. Their PK numbers may not be that atrocious, but they don't pass the eye test and Dallas got 12 SOG's on the PP tonight and only 17 at even strength. Stay out of the box.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.