The Bolts led 2-1 following an eventful opening 20 minutes.
A Stars turnover ended up in the back of their net and put the Lightning in front five minutes into the game. Ondrej Palat created the pressure that allowed Nikita Kucherov to intercept a pass at the Dallas blueline and beat Anton Khudobin on a clean breakaway.
The big pregame news was that Steven Stamkos would make his 2020 playoff debut in Game 3 and he came through with a goal on his first shot in the opening period. Stamkos eluded Esa Lindell along the wall and fired his shot to the far post from a tight angle.
Facing an early two-goal deficit, the Stars tightened up and swung momentum back in their favor. Dallas pulled within one on a Jason Dickinson shorthanded goal midway through the period. The Stars kept the pressure up following the goal and forced Tampa Bay to play on their heels for the remainder of the period.
An Alexander Radulov penalty in the closing seconds of the first period, however, gave the Lightning a chance to find their game when play resumed. Less than a minute in, the puck trickled free from a scrum behind the Dallas net to Victor Hedman at the high slot and he stepped up to wire a shot past Khudobin to put the Bolts back up two.
Tampa Bay continued to pour it on in the second with Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat both scoring to push the lead to 5-1. On Point's goal, Tampa Bay took advantage of a poor Dallas line change and he one-timed home Nikita Kucherov's feed on a 3-on-1 rush. With just over a minute remaining in the period, Palat swatted home a rebound to basically put the game away.
Andrew Cogliano scored seven minutes into the third period to make it 5-2 but that would be as close as Dallas would get despite several power play chances down the stretch.
For the third consecutive game in the series, Dallas struggled with penalties, taking another four on Wednesday and surrendering one power play goal. Tampa Bay also took four penalties but came through with the kill on each occasion.
The Stamkos return was unfortunately short lived. Stamkos was absent from the Lightning bench at the start of the second period and, although he returned to the bench, he didn't take a shift in the second or third period.
After dropping Game 1 of the series, back-to-back wins now have the Bolts in front heading into Game 4 on Friday night.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
TBL | 5:33 Nikita Kucherov (7) - Unassisted
TBL | 6:58 Steven Stamkos (1) - Victor Hedman, Jan Rutta
DAL | 11:19 Jason Dickinson (2) - Roope Hintz - SGH
2nd Period
TBL | 0:54 Victor Hedman (10) - Anthony Cirelli, Ondrej Palat - PPG
TBL | 12:02 Brayden Point (11) - Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman
TBL | 18:55 Ondrej Palat (10) - Brayden Point, Kevin Shattenkirk
3rd Period
DAL | 6:49 Miro Heiskanen (6) - Joe Pavelski, Andrew Cogliano
