 being able to dress and play and B) scoring, I don't think the guys were going to be denied,'' Cooper said.That's because the Lightning got goals from all three of their first-line forwards, their top defenseman and their captain and big saves from their Vezina Trophy finalist goaltender, while the Stars' best players were quiet once again or made big mistakes to contribute to the loss. Nikita Kucherov, Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat all scored for Tampa Bay, which was the better team from the start of the second period on.''They made two good shots early,'' Stars captain Jamie Benn said. ''They capitalized on their chances and we didn't.'' Khudobin was under pressure most of the night and allowed five goals on 29 shots before coach Rick Bowness replaced him at the start of the third with rookie Jake Oettinger. Khudobin said it was Bowness' choice and that he didn't ask for the rest.At the other end, Andrei Vasilevskiy made a few big saves among his 31, including a brilliant left pad stop on Corey Perry early in the game.The game was everything that has made Tampa Bay one of the best teams in hockey for more than half of the last decade. That included the return of Stamkos, the Lightning's leader who has been forced to watch while rehabbing a core muscle injury.Stamkos, who last played Feb. 25, had surgery in early March and aggravated the injury at least once over the summer, didn't want to go into detail about what happened then or Wednesday 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.'' The Lightning rolled with and without Stamkos. Minutes after Hedman prevented a breakaway goal by speedy Stars forward Denis Gurianov, Kucherov took advantage of a brutal turnover by 21-year-old budding star Miro Heiskanen and scored on a breakaway of his own.Hedman scored his own goal in the second, his 10th to put him third all-time in goals by defenseman during a single postseason. Only Paul Coffey and Brian Leetch have more.''I think Kuch said it after the last game: We're not here for our personal stats,'' Hedman said. ''We're here for one thing, and that's winning the Stanley Cup.'' Dallas' stars not being at their best won't help their attempt to win it. Beyond Heiskanen's turnover, top-line winger Alexander Radulov took two bad penalties, while Tyler Seguin's goal drought reached a career-worst 12 games and Khuodbin was shaky.''We lost our team play, we lost our intensity and we lost our focus,'' Bowness said. ''When you do that, a team like that is going to make you look real bad, which they did.'' Fourth-liner Jason Dickinson scored the Stars' only goal before the game was out of hand, and Heiskanen's in the third period didn't make up for putting the puck right on Kucherov's stick for the breakaway.''They made two good shots early,'' Stars captain Jamie Benn said. ''They capitalized on their chances, and we didn't.'' While Tampa Bay got a significant talent back, Dallas was without a key veteran role player. Forward Blake Comeau was ruled unfit to play after appearing to injure his right shoulder on a hit by Ryan McDonagh in Game 2.Nick Caamano made his NHL playoff debut in Comeau's place. He also last played - in the minors - 196 days ago.Stamkos' return was emotional in many ways, coming the week after he joined the Lightning on the ice to celebrate reaching the final.''I'm so proud of these guys, and to be able to share that moment with them and just even be on the bench and watch how well we played tonight, I have told these guys before: It's inspiring,'' Stamkos said. ''It was great to be part of.'' NOTES: Oettinger stopped the two shots he faced in relief. ... To make room for Stamkos, Tampa Bay scratched Carter Verhaeghe. ... Along with Comeau being out, goalie Ben Bishop, forward Radek Faksa and defenseman Stephen Johns remained unfit to play.UP NEXTStamkos said it's too early to tell if he'll play in Game 4 Friday night.---More NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Having seen their three-goal edge whittled to a 3-2 lead and a much-needed insurance marker called back because of an offside play, the Tampa Bay Lightning could have crumbled in the final stages of Monday's Stanley Cup Final clash with the Dallas Stars.Instead, the Lightning buckled down to hang onto a clutch victory. Tampa Bay evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1.The Stars managed only two shots on goal in the final 14:33 while trying to push for an overtime-forcing equalizer."We banded together," defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. "We started making more plays, putting pucks in and hemming them in, and we did a great job to lock it down." "The one thing that this team has done is they just never put themselves in panic mode," coach Jon Cooper said. "Instead of trying to protect the lead, they went out there and actually they kind of took it to them. Not in the sense that we were trying to score, but we were completely engaged. ... They knew the job at hand, the talk on the bench was to close this out, and that's what they did." When the puck drops Wednesday for Game 3 in Edmonton, the Lightning will look for more of the same. The Stars must find a way to install their game plan."After the first game, we knew we (could play) better, and we knew we were going to come strong. We did," said Lightning forward Ondrej Palat. "And that's what I like about our team. We just stick together, and I thought we fought hard." The biggest key for Dallas will be to play with more discipline. Tampa Bay's power play has struggled for much of the playoffs, but the Lightning have shown they can break open a game when given the opportunity, and did just that in scoring a pair of first-period power-play goals Monday en route to the 3-0 lead that was too much for the Stars to overcome.Dallas has been short-handed 79 times in their 20 playoff games (not including the round-robin portion of the restart), by far more than any other team that reached the second season. By comparison, Tampa Bay has been short-handed 63 times in 18 playoff contests.The Stars may be the underdogs in the championship series, but have shown they can go toe-to-toe with the Lightning during five-on-five play."We need to stay out of the box. It helps," forward Joe Pavelski said. "When we stay out of the box, we've showed it so far that we're a good team." The Stars may have suffered a big hit to their chances with veteran forward Blake Comeau leaving after a second-period check by Ryan McDonagh. Dallas is already without Radek Faksa, so that would mean two key checking forwards on the shelf."He's a big part of our club, the leadership, the compete, the penalty killing," coach Rick Bowness said of Comeau. "He's on that checking line. Losing him hurt us. There's no question." --Field Level Media
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