Stars dig deep to force Game 6 of Stanley Cup Final against Lightning

The Dallas Stars are used to feeling like they've been counted out and figured there were many who were doing just that entering Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday.

Needing a win to keep their season alive and dealing with injuries and fatigue in the second game of a back-to-back, the Stars certainly appeared to be in trouble. But Dallas found a way to dig deep and come away with a 3-2 win on Corey Perry's goal at 9:23 of the second overtime.
"We just battle, and it doesn't matter," Perry said. "We believe in that dressing room. We came here with 51 people. All those guys in that room believe we can go out there and get this done. That's all that really matters."
Perry's second goal of the game pushed the best-of-7 series to Game 6 in Edmonton, the hub city for the Cup Final, on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS).

Dallas, which was coming off a 5-4 overtime loss in Game 4 on Friday, still faces an uphill climb. Teams that lost Game 4 to fall behind 3-1 are 0-27 in the Stanley Cup Final (since 1939). Four of those teams managed to win Game 6 after winning Game 5.
But the Stars saw plenty of reasons to continue believing they can pull off the comeback. Among them was the play of goalie Anton Khudobin, who made 39 saves in a rebound performance.
After making 35 saves in a 4-1 win in Game 1, Khudobin allowed 13 goals on 95 shots (.863 save percentage) in the next three games. Coach Rick Bowness acknowledged after Khudobin allowed five goals on 35 shots in Game 4 that the 34-year-old might be tiring and said he'd wait until Saturday morning to discuss with his staff whether to start him again Game 5.
Khudobin took matters into his own hands, though, and told goalie coach Jeff Reese on Friday night that wanted to start again Saturday.
"He wanted that ball. He wanted the puck. He wanted to be in that net tonight," Bowness said. "We talked about it last night. He let Jeff know, 'I'm in. I want to be in there.' That shows you what a tremendous competitor he is."

Defenseman Andrej Sekera was another player whose competitive nature epitomized the Stars' effort Saturday. Sekera hobbled to the locker room after blocking a shot from Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev off the inside of his right knee 9:56 into the first period.
The Stars were already playing without forwards Roope Hintz, Blake Comeau and Radek Faksa, defenseman Stephen Johns, and goalie Ben Bishop, who were unfit to play. With Sekera being treated in the locker room, they played the remainder of the first period and all of the second with five defensemen. Sekera was able to return for the start of the third period and took regular shifts for the remainder of the game.
"Give him a lot of credit," Bowness said. "He took the shot and knew he was in a lot of pain. He really was. So it took a while to subside and that shows you his compete, his love of the team and his teammates that he misses a whole period, goes out and gives us great minutes, and needed minutes."
Although "next man up" is a cliche teams use when dealing with injuries, it's what Dallas has relied upon heavily in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was Justin Dowling's turn to step into the lineup Saturday when Hintz was unable to play after crashing into the boards in the second period Friday, and he delivered five hits in 17:12 of ice time.
Nick Caamano has played the past three games in place of Comeau and Jason Dickinson, who has been inserted for Faksa on the checking line, gutted out 23:14 of ice time Saturday despite playing with a sore foot from blocking a shot in the first period Friday.
"We enjoy being called underdogs," said Dallas center Tyler Seguin, who had an assist on all three goals in Game 5. "Every person really this whole time we've been in the bubble seems to choose the other team we're playing. We relish that. We believe in each other. We've got a confident group and we don't want to leave the bubble, so we're having fun."