The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars in a Stanley Cup rematch on Tuesday night.
Game Recap
In the first period of Tuesday night’s game, the Tampa Bay Lightning looked like the better team but were snakebitten by Anton Khudobin, until they got a power play goal by Ondrej Palat. Other than the one goal in the first, it was a very quiet start for both teams. Through the second, the feeling out process continued as there weren’t many chances for either side. Heading into the third, the Tampa Bay Lightning lead 1-0. Tampa Bay would have to defend the lead and they would do a very good job at doing so. They would stifle the frustrated Stars, with Yanni Gourde scoring an empty netter to seal the game. Andrei Vasilevskiy would record his 3rd straight shutout for the first time in his career. Tampa Bay would also become just the second defending champion to earn a shutout against their finalist opponent in consecutive meetings the following season.
Ondrej Palat
Ondrej Palat had a very good game for the Bolts. With Nikita Kucherov out of the lineup, Palat has stepped up this season. Palat notched over 18 minutes on Tuesday night, scoring the game winning goal in the first. He also had an 100% shooting percentage, two hits and almost five minutes on the power play.
Ondrej Palat: “We had a lot of chances on the [power play], especially in the second and third… I missed a couple passes so I have to be better.”
Next Up
The Lightning (now 15-4-1) will look for their sixth straight win on Thursday, at 8:00 PM EST against the Chicago Blackhawks (12-7-4).