Corey Perry and the Dallas Stars are still alive and have chances to win the Stanley Cup trophy. Last night they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning after two OTs, 3-2, forcing Game 6 of the series.
Perry was the man of the match with two goals, one of them a game-winning at 9:32 of the second OT. This hard and exhausting event came one day following Game 4 that also saw an OT.
It seems that the Stars had more will and motive to get from this one alive, as they face the end of their Stanely Cup dreams. They also had a lot of luck and a very focused goalie, Anthon Khudobin who posted 39 saves, playing a crucial role besides Perry. The Russian stopped the Lightning in the OT, especially in the first, making seven saves. He woke up the entire team, who didn’t create a single dangerous situation during the whole first OT.
Perry handed Stars the lead with 2:08 until the end of the first period, following one lose puck, which he stuffed into the net.
Ondrej Palat scored an equalizer 4:37 into the second frame, after a nice individual effort during which he avoided Esa Lindell, and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy. It seemed that the Lightning once again turned the tide of the event, with 3:38 of the last period. That is Mikhail Sergachev added the second goal for the Eastern Conference champions, blasting a one-timer past Khudobin.
Yet, Joe Pavelski, who plays very good dring the entire series, didn’t want to lose this one, and the veteran tied the contest at 2-all 6:35 before the end. It was his 61st postseason goal, which now makes him the best USA-born player in this category.
“We hang in there, we really do,” he said at the press.
As previously said, the last two games both saw OT, which is the first time in the NHL postseason history to witness back-to-back OTs in the finals.
Stars are now down 3-2. On 27 occasions, just four teams who fell behind 3-1 had reached Game 7, but none of them won the trophy. Dallas’s players are hoping to be the first with such an achievement.
Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final occurs this Monday in Edmonton, the hub city for this series. The start is at 8 pm ET with NBC, CBC, and SN broadcasting the same.