Stamkos returns to spark Tampa with goal in cameo
EDMONTON, Alberta — As soon as Steven Stamkos scored on his first shot since February, his Tampa Bay Lightning celebrated onthe ice and the bench with 211 days of pent up excitement.
Even after Stamkos left with injury, they didn’t let up and dominated without him, blowing the Dallas Stars out of an empty arena with a 5-2 rout in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night to take the lead in the series. Even though he only skated five shifts for 2:47, the longtime Lightning captainmakinghis2020playoff debut 211 days after he last played in an NHL game gave the Lightning a jolt.
“Just to be able to get out into a game and have an impact on a game, which a month ago may have never been possible” said a smiling Stamkos, whohas been rehabbing a coremuscle injury, “It’s been such a long time. At this time of the year, you want to do anything you can to help your team win. I’ve watched these guys be so committed towhat our end goal is, and to be part of it tonight, itwas a dream come true.”
Stamkos made the most of limited ice time, scoring a vintage goal by going around Esa Lindell and sniping a shot past Anton Khudobin. Defenseman Victor Hedman, who fed the puck to Stamkos, lost track of it until he sawit in the back of the net.
The Lightning bench broke into a spontaneous celebration perhaps unlike any goal in the playoffs.
“I think that the cheerwas just a little bit louder,” coach Jon Cooper said.
Stamkos skated off gingerly at the end of his final shift in the first period and was not on the bench for the start of the second. He returned to the bench and took a few twirls to test out the injury but did not return.
The Lightning were just fine with Stamkos offering moral support from the bench. Just his presence
meant somuch.
“Unexpected, but just the lift he gave us A) being able to dress and play and B) scoring, I don’t think the guys were going to be denied,” Cooper said.
Stamkos, who last played Feb. 25, had surgery in earlymarch and aggravated the injury at least once over the summer, didn’twant to go
into detail about what happened then orwednesday night.
“I wanted to play as much as I could,“Stamkos said. “Obviously there was an issue that I’ve been working through. We’ll see what happens from here.”
Dallas was hurt by its stars not being at their best . Miro Heiskanen’s turnover led to a goal, topline winger Alexander Radulov took two bad penalties, Tyler Seguin’s goal drought reached a career-worst 12 games and Khuodbin was shaky.
Khudobin allowed five goals on 29 shots before coach Rick Bowness replaced him at the start of the third with rookie Jake Oettinger.
“We lost our team play, we lost our intensity and we lost our focus,“coach Bowness said. “When you do that, a team like that is going to make you look real bad, which they did.”