The Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars each will try to take a step toward winning the Stanley Cup when they play Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Wednesday.
The Lightning evened the best-of-7 series with a 3-2 win in Game 2 on Monday after the Stars’ 4-1 victory in Game 1.
The winner of Game 3 when a best-of-7 Final is tied is 22-7 (75.9 percent) in the series.
“We now are in a best three-out-of-five to win the Stanley Cup,” Dallas coach Rick Bowness said.
The Stars are 6-2-0 following a loss this postseason, including 5-1 when goalie Anton Khudobin starts. Khudobin is expected to make his 10th straight start.
The Lightning have not won back-to-back games since Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Islanders, going 3-3 in their past six postseason games.
Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos could make his postseason debut. The forward, who hasn’t played since Feb. 25, sustained a lower-body injury before the Lightning returned in July for training camp in advance of the postseason.
“There’s a lot of things that are going to have to go into this beforehand, but he’s getting closer,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.
Here are 3 keys to Game 3:
1. Hit and be hit
There have been 207 hits in Games 1 and 2, with the Lightning holding a 107-100 advantage.
The series figures to remain physical, so the first team to give an inch in this area could find itself getting knocked off the puck enough to lead to chances the other way.
“It’s been physical and guys are doing everything they can to win,” Tampa Bay forward Tyler Johnson said Wednesday. “Dallas is a bigger team, strong, and they play good defensively, structured. We do too. When you get two teams like that, it’s going to be a hard-fought battle. Both teams, going this far, you’re so close yet you’re still far away and you’re literally doing everything right now. We’ve had some good games so far and we’re just trying to keep that compete up.”
2. Stars maintaining discipline
Each team has been on the penalty kill seven times, but it’s Dallas that needs to be more wary about the penalties it takes and when it takes them because the Tampa Bay power play clicked in Game 2, going 2-for-4 after it was 0-for-14 in its previous four games.
The Stars were shorthanded three times in the first period of Game 2, including two penalties in a span of 2:13. The Lightning scored on each power play.
Dallas was shorthanded three times in the third period of Game 1 protecting a two-goal lead. The Stars killed all three penalties.
“I didn’t like the [undisciplined] penalties we took (in Game 2),” Bowness said. “Maybe you take one of those per period. What we’ve done the last two games is taken three in a period, one after another after another, and that just kills our team. And clearly that power play is going to score if you keep giving them undisciplined opportunities.”
3. Start on time
The team that has scored first has won each game, partly because the goal was part of a strong first period.
The Lightning were up 3-0 and outshot the Stars 14-6 in the first period of Game 2. Game 1 was tied 1-1 after the first period, but Dallas was controlling the game defensively and led to a game-changing second period on the way to taking a 3-1 lead.
Lightning projected lineup
Ondrej Palat — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn — Anthony Cirelli — Tyler Johnson
Barclay Goodrow — Yanni Gourde — Blake Coleman
Pat Maroon — Cedric Paquette — Carter Verhaeghe
Victor Hedman — Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh — Kevin Shattenkirk
Mikhail Sergachev — Erik Cernak
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Mathieu Joseph, Mitchell Stephens, Alexander Volkov, Braydon Coburn, Scott Wedgewood, Luke Schenn, Zach Bogosian
Unfit to play: Steven Stamkos
Stars projected lineup
Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark — Joe Pavelski — Denis Gurianov
Joel Kiviranta — Roope Hintz — Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano — Jason Dickinson — Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak — Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera — Joel Hanley
Anton Khudobin
Jake Oettinger
Scratched: Nick Caamano, Ty Dellandrea, Jason Robertson, Gavin Bayreuther, Thomas Harley, Landon Bow, Justin Dowling, Taylor Fedun
Unfit to play: Stephen Johns, Ben Bishop, Radek Faksa
Status report
Comeau, who did not participate in the morning skate Wednesday, will be a game-time decision. He left Game 2 in the second period after an open-ice hit by by McDonagh and did not return for the third period. Caamano, a forward, could replace Comeau if he does not play. It would be his NHL postseason debut.
