- Tampa Bay defeated Dallas Stars in Game 2 with 3-2.
- After 14 straight powerplay situations, the Lightening finally scored, and they did it twice last night.
- After leading 3-0, Tampa Bay allowed Dallas to come back and endanger their lead.
Tampa Bay’s Perfect First Period
The Lightning scored three goals inside four minutes, all in the latter part of the opening frame. They were exceptional during that sequence, hitting twice during the powerplays.
For the first time after 14 consecutive powerplays, the Lightning scored, and they did it twice in a row. At first, Brayden Point opened the show at 11:23 with a nice wrist shot, following Nikita Kucherov’s assist. The Russian added one more assist to his tally when he passed the puck to open Ondrej Plat, who scored at 14:22. Both these hits came during powerplays.
Precisely 54 seconds later, Kevin Shatternik raised to 3-0. It was a knockdown for the Stars who didn’t know what hit them. Dallas looked lost, and luckily for them, they didn’t allow one more goal until the end of the period.
Vaislevskiy Defends Lightning in the Second
Tampa Bay’s goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy, was superb in the second period, coming up with some huge saves, stopping 17 of Dallas’s 18 shots. Meanwhile, his team was in retreat and they would have just five attempts to score.
Following a shocking sequence in the late phase of the first, the Stars bounced back to completely dominate the ice during the middle 20 minutes.
“We dominated that second period and Vasilevskiy had to make a lot of huge saves. So they won the first, we won the second and [Vasilevskiy] kept it in there, and then it was a pretty even third,” said Stars’ head coach Rick Bowness.
Joe Pavelski delivered the only goal here, at 5:17 during one of Dallas’ four powerplays. Unlike their rivals, they couldn’t have higher efficiency, mostly because of Vasilevskiy. He would eventually end the night with 27 saves.
“Can’t say enough about him, what he’s done for us,” Jon Cooper, Tampa Bays’ coach said.
The third period was much different, with the Lightning regaining the control of the ice. They outshoot the rivals, 11-5, but allowed one goal, which could have complicated things a lot.
Mattias Janmark netted at 5:27 into the final period, making this one a pretty exciting and thrilling event. Tampa had the initiative and was convincing, but a certain dose of pressure was definitely noticed on the ice.
“Instead of trying to protect the lead, they went out there and actually they kind of took it to them,” Cooper said.
Game 3 is set for this Wednesday at 8 pm ET, in Edmonton. Game 4 is two days later, on Friday at the same time.
The Stars now have to respond. If they do and stop the rise of the Lightning, things will be much easier for them. If not, Tampa Bay will gain a massive boost, the one that might carry them all the way.
