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SCF: Stars Extend Series to a Game 6 w/ Double OT win |
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The 2020 Stanley Cup Final lives on, thanks to a Corey Perry goal in double overtime that lifted the Dallas Stars to a 3-2 double overtime victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 of the series on Saturday night in the Bubble in Edmonton. Game 6 will be played on Monday night; the teams' third game in a four-night span.
In each of the last two games, both Perry and Joe Pavelski have scored vital goals for the Stars, who dropped a gut-wrenching 5-4 overtime decision in Game 4 on Friday. Perry opened the scoring late in the first period of Game 5 before his double-OT winner. Pavelski scored the mid third period goal that sent Saturday's tilt to overtime. Tyler Seguin collected five assists over the back-to-back games, including three in Game 5.
Anton Khudobin was stellar in goal in Game 5 after a so-so outing the previous night. He turned back 39 of 41 shots to earn the victory and slammed the door over the last 45+ minutes of game play before Perry won the game. Khudobin made an excellent save on the deadly Brayden Point in the second OT to keep the game going. The Stars also played well in front of him, holding Tampa to just 14 shots the rest of the way after Tampa temporarily took a 3-2 lead.
For Tampa Bay, Ondrej Palat scored a beautiful goal at 4:37 of the second period to knot the score at 1-1 after Perry had opened the scoring at 17:52 of the first period. Perry's goal came after a failed clear by Tampa and a broken play in the slot left a loose puck for Perry to pounce on and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy (30 saves on 33 shots) upstairs.
The Stars got off to a good start in the second period until Tampa scored on a length-of-the-ice rush that started with all three Stars forwards caught in the attack zone on a failed forecheck in which the F2 and F3 were in no-man's land as the Lightning exited the zone. Nick Caamano attempted to backcheck but there was no catching up to the play as Tampa attacked with a head of steam upon entry into the Dallas zone. Palat cut to the inside from the right circle, moving past Esa Lindell and outmaneuvering Khudobin to score.
The Palat goal was a momentum changer in game play as well as on the scoreboard. From that point through the remainder of the second period, the Lightning outshot the Stars by a 9-3 margin (13-6 overall).
At 3:38 of the third period, Tampa took their first and only lead of the game. Point took some evasive action near the blueline to gain entry against the stick-checking attempt of Jason Dickinson. Pulling up near the left half boards, he passed back to Mikhail Sergachev at the left point. Taking advantage of layered traffic screening Khudobin, Sergachev ripped a shot that found the back of the net.
As they've done throughout the postseason, though, the Stars refused to go quietly. They pushed back and finally got rewarded at 13:15 as Pavelski scored his 13th goal of the 2020 playoffs. Tampa won the initial left circle faceoff as Jamie Benn gambled and lost in trying to take the puck forward off the draw. However, Tampa quickly turned the puck over to Dallas on a failed clearing attempt by Ryan McDonagh. Seguin claimed the puck and rotated it to Miro Heiskanen at center point with with traffic in front. The initial shot was stopped but Pavelski scored on the rebound.
The goal was a major career milestone for Pavelski and made history: It was his 61st career goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs (160 games played), making the Wisconsin native the highest goal-scoring American player in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The record was previously held by Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Mullen. Another Hockey Hall of Famer, Mike Modano, is third with 59. Future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane, whose Chicago team has only reached the postseason once int the last three years but is capable of surging past Pavelski by the time both are retired, is now nine career playoff goals behind Pavelski.
The Stars ended up with 13 shots on goal in the third period to seven for Tampa but were held to just a pair of shots on net (to seven for Tampa) in the first overtime. In the second OT, after a clean faceoff win by the Lightning, Khudobin just barely got a skate on a seemingly ticketed Point re-direct of a Victor Hedman shot/pass. Finally, at 9:23, Perry jammed home the rebound of a John Klingberg point shot to send the series to a Game 6.
After controversial penalty calls figured into goals in earlier games in the series, it was not surprising that the referees (Dan O'Roarke and Steve Kozari on this night) basically let the players play in Game 5. There were only three penalties called all game -- two on Tampa, one on Dallas -- and all were clear-cut. The lack of special teams benefited the Stars, who have yielded 6 power play goals in the series on 16 PK opportunities (a dismal 62.5 percent rate) and have only scored once on 16 power plays of their own (6.3 percent).
Dallas Stars Blogger • 
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