The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars 5-2 on Wednesday night to take a 2-1 series lead in the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals. It also marked the return of Steven Stamkos, who played on Wednesday night for the first time in the playoff tournament and made a significant contribution.
The game started well for the Lightning, when Nikita Kucherov scored at the 5:33 mark of the first period. Then Steven Stamkos made some magic happen, as the captain scored at the 6:5 mark in a moment that saw the entire bench erupt in a moment that could not have been scripted any better.
From there Dallas answered with a goal from Jason Dickinson scored at the 11:19 mark to pull within 2-1, but the second period saw the Lightning take control of this game. After Victor Hedman scored on a power play early in the third, Tampa Bay then added a Brayden Point goal midway through the third to take a 4-1 lead. Ondrej Palat came through with a huge goal that would prove to be the dagger at the 18:55 mark of the second period. Though the Stars got a third period goal from Miro Heiskanen, 5-2 would be as close as Dallas would get.
Andrei Vasilevskiy got the win in net for Tampa Bay going 22-for-24, while Anton Khudobin went 24-for-29 in net before being pulled for Jake Oettinger to finish the game. The Lightning and Stars now turn their attention to game four on Friday night - puck drop is scheduled for 8 PM with pregame coverage beginning at 7 PM on News Radio WFLA.