Bolts one win from Stanley Cup

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This article was published 24/09/2020 (1309 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON — They can beat you in so many ways, these Tampa Bay Lightning. With a Vezina Trophy finalist in goal, a Norris Trophy finalist on the blue line and a star-studded cast of forwards up front, the depth of their talent is truly impressive.

And so we shouldn’t really be surprised that Jon Cooper’s crew is now just one win away from sipping from the Stanley Cup. Unless, of course, you’re the Dallas Stars, who blew several glorious chances on Friday night at Rogers Place and ended up costing themselves with some sloppy, undisciplined play.

Defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk scored on the power play 6:34 into overtime to give Tampa Bay a 5-4 victory and a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series. They can close out their second championship, and first since 2004, as early as tonight when Game 5 goes down.

“It’s kind of every sort of emotion you can think of. It took a lot for us to get there. We kept it simple on the power play and good things happened,” said Shattenkirk, who also had the Game 2 winning goal on Monday.

“He’s been scoring some big ones for us all playoffs. He’s so steady for us, he works so hard. To see him bury one is obviously awesome,” said Tampa forward Brayden Point.

Stars captain Jamie Benn was in the box at the time for tripping Tyler Johnson early in the overtime period, a call that left the Stars bench irate.

“Are you (expletive) kidding me” several players were heard shouting at referees Kelly Sutherland and Francis Charron. Of course, the Stars had just failed to convert on their own extra-time man advantage after Lightning defenceman Mikhail Sergachev was called for holding a few minutes earlier.

“Jamie breathes on him and the guy falls over… it’s playoffs, it’s overtime, we expect to battle it out,” veteran Dallas forward Joe Pavelski told reporters after the game.

Dallas, which surrendered a pair of leads along with three power-play goals, must now win three straight games while facing elimination.

Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness juggled his lines to start the game in an attempt to get some of his big guns going. And it paid off early.

Defenceman John Klingberg, with his team’s first shot of the night just over seven minutes into the game, beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a low shot to open the scoring. His initial attempt was blocked, but persistence paid off as he got it right back and made no mistake with his second effort.

The Stars also came out throwing their weight around, with Victor Hedman seemingly their main target. First Jason Dickinson planted the all-star defenceman on his backside, and then Benn followed suit.

Pavelski, playing on a new top line with Benn and Alex Radulov, continued his excellent playoffs by scoring his team-leading 11th goal at 18:28 of the first period. It was just the third shot of the game for the Stars.

But then came a defensive breakdown with just 32 seconds left in the frame, as Point got in behind the blue line, took a pass from Ondrej Palat and beat Anton Khudobin for his playoff-leading 12th goal.

“That was huge, that goal was amazing. You can see how much talent he has. The speed on that goal, how he went around him is pretty amazing,” said forward Yanni Gourde.

Tampa Bay carried that momentum over to the middle frame, capitalizing once again on some undisciplined Dallas play. With Jamie Oleksiak in the penalty box for tripping, Point struck again, batting a loose puck out of the air to tie it 2-2 just 2:08 into the period.

The wide-open, back-and-forth affair continued, with Tampa just missing taking the lead at one end, only for Corey Perry to stuff home a loose puck at the other seconds later. His first goal in 20 playoff games also lands him in the NHL history books, as the first player to score a regular-season goal and a playoff goal in September.

Back came the Lightning, once again with a Stars player sitting in the sin bin. Andrew Cogliano was whistled for hooking, and Gourde tied it up with just over two minutes left in the period.

Nikita Kucherov, with his second assist of the night, set an NHL record for helpers by a winger, passing Mark Recchi’s 24 set in 1991. He also joined Point as just the eighth set of teammates to reach at least 30 playoff points in the same year.

Heading to the final period, it almost felt inevitable that Tampa would take its first lead. And that came with 13:19 left, as Killorn went bar-down to make it a 4-3 game.

“We have some big players who make big-time plays,” forward Alex Killorn said of his Lightning squad.

But the Stars, recognizing the urgency of the situation, stepped up their game and got numerous chances, finally getting rewarded with 8:25 left. Once again it was Pavelski, who bounced a puck in off a Tampa defender.

That set the stage for Shattenkirk’s overtime heroics. The Lightning have now won six extra-time games inside the bubble.

“We just stuck with it. They get up a couple goals, we come back, They get up another one. I think it was just sticking with the process. We weren’t focused on the end result, just the next shift. It worked out for us,” said Point.

 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg