Lightning even up Final
Edmonton, Alberta
Nikita Kucherov and the Tampa Bay Lightning got themselves up off the ice to get even in the Stanley Cup Final.
Kucherov had the primary assists on power-play goals by Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat in the first period before Kevin Shattenkirk scored and the Lightning held on for a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars to win Game 2 on Monday night.
Those three goals came in a span of four shots in less than four minutes against Anton Khudobin, who made a Stanley Cup Final-record 22 saves in the third period for the Stars in their 4-1 win in Game 1 two nights earlier. Game 3 is Wednesday night.
Joe Pavelski and Mattias Janmark scored for Dallas on passes from John Klingberg, with Alexander Radulov also assisting on both.
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 Janmark.
On their second power play in Game 2, 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. Victor Hedman had the secondary assist on both of those goals.
Shattenkirk scored less than a minute later.
It was the first time in seven games Tampa Bay scored the opening goal.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots for Tampa Bay. Khudobin had 28 saves.
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