SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Down 3-1 in games, the Dallas Stars trimmed the gap to 3-2 with Saturday night‘s Corey Perry goal in the second overtime to nip the Tampa Bay Lighting, 3-2, and keep their Stanley Cup quest on hold, with game six to played Monday night at the Rogers Place Arena in Edmonton, Alberta
It was veteran Perry’s second goal of the game, while teammate Myler Seguin came away with three assists, and goalkeeper Anton Khudobin made 39 saves as the Stars were outshot, 39-30. Dallas took a 1-0 lead on Perry’s first goal in the opening period on Seguin’s initial assist, But Tampa Bay, the Eastern Conference champion who ousted the New York Islanders in six games, tied the score at 1-1 on Ondrej Palat’s goal in the second period, and in the third period, the Lighting took a 2-1 lead on Nikka Kucherin’s goal on an assist from John Klingsberg.
But Joe Pavelski, like Perry one of the veterans on the ice, knotted things at 2-2midway through the third period, with Seguin again supplying the assist. After a hectic first overtime, Perry took a pass from Seguin and fired the puck past goalie Andre Vasielskiy and the Dallas celebration began for the Western Conference champions who eliminated the No. 1 seeded Las Vegas Golden Knights in five games.
There was plenty of action, lots of boarding and high sticking, but there were few penalties, two for Tampa Bay and four minutes in the penalty box, with Dallas getting called for only one penalty and spending two minutes in the penalty box, while having the advantage in hits, 64-57, in faceoffs, and 17-11 in takeaways.
