Tampa takes over
Stamkos returns, Lightning beat Dallas to edge 2-1 lead in Stanley Cup final
EDMONTON
Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos returned — very briefly — from a sevenmonth injury layoff, and scored on his first shot on net as the Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 Wednesday in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final.
Victor Hedman had a goal a two assists. Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point also scored for Tampa Bay.
The Lightning lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. Game 4 is set for Friday and Game 5 just 24 hours after that on Saturday night.
Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 21 shots for his 16th win of the playoffs.
Jason Dickinson and Miro Heiskanen replied for Dallas. Anton Khudobin turned away 24-of-29 shots and was replaced by Jake Oettinger for the start of the third period when the score was 5-1. Khudobin is 13-8 in the 2020 post-season.
Stamkos, a two-time winner of the
Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s goalscoring leader, last played Feb. 25. He underwent core muscle surgery in early
March.
The 30-year-old from Markham, Ont., started the game on the fourth line with Cedric Paquette and Pat Maroon and didn’t skate on the power play.
He played less than three minutes in the first period, then stayed in the dressing room until well into the second and didn’t leave the bench for the rest of the game.
Nevertheless, he made the most of his 2:47 in ice time, scoring less than seven minutes into the game to make it 2-0 for Tampa.
He took a cross-ice pass from Hedman and, with a burst of speed, slipped through a tiny space between the boards and Dallas defender Esa Lindell, flew in and fired a wrist shot from the right face-off circle topshelf far side on Khudobin.
Kucherov opened the scoring just over a minute earlier when Heiskanen lost the puck at his own blue-line. Kucherov pounced on it and fired a low missile blocker-side on a breakaway.
Kucherov, with seven goals and 30 points, is the league leader in 2020 playoff scoring.