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Sports Minute: Lightning 3-0 lead over Dallas after 1st in Stanley Cup G2

3 years 6 months 5 days ago Monday, September 21 2020 Sep 21, 2020 September 21, 2020 8:20 PM September 21, 2020 in Sports - AP - Texas

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Brayden Point scored with a one-timer during a power play as Tampa Bay scored the opening goal for the first time in its last seven games, and the Lightning led the Dallas Stars 3-0 after the first period in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night.

Ondrej Palat added another power-play goal and Kevin Shattenkirk also scored against Anton Khudobin, who set a Stanley Cup Final record with his 22 saves in the third period of Dallas' 4-1 victory in the series opener Saturday.

After taking some hard hits in the first 10 minutes of the game, Nikita Kucherov had the primary assists on both power-play goals.

On their second time with the man advantage, the Lightning cycled the puck to set up Kucherov's pass to Point to open the scoring 11:23 into the game. Three minutes later, soon after Khudobin slid over to stop Kucherov's one-timer, Palat finished a nice passing sequence, taking advantage of a half-open net.

Shattenkirk scored less than a minute after that for Tampa Bay, which finished the period with 14-6 advantage in shots on goal.

Kucherov left the bench momentarily early in the game after slamming hard into the boards on a collision with defenseman Jamie Oleksiak after trying to block a shot. Kucherov had already ended up on the ice twice before, when he was popped by Dallas captain Jamie Benn and when he drew a high-sticking penalty against Mattias Janmark.

That was the only one of Tampa Bay's three power plays that it didn't get a goal.

Dallas ended the period with 49 seconds remaining on a power play that will carry into the second period.

Playing their seventh game in 13 days since an extended break after wrapping up their second-round series against Boston in five games, the Lightning dressed 12 forwards instead of 11 for the first time since Game 1 against the Bruins on Aug. 23.

While Tampa Bay had one fewer defenseman than what it has been playing with, the group of six against the Stars included Jan Rutta playing only his second game this postseason — and first since a round-robin game Aug. 5.

In the opening minutes, Rutta appeared to lay back on the puck thinking goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy would play it. Hedman wrapped up Stars center Jamie Dickinson in front of the crease before the puck finally got cleared.

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