Late push not enough for Stars in Game 2 loss to Lightning

In an intense game in which both teams made great mistakes and great plays, the Tampa Bay Lightning held on through a chaotic third period and took a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars to even up the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final at 1-1.
The reviews were both frightening and inspiring all at the same time.

Both teams received bumps and bruises, and Stars winger Blake Comeau left the game in the second period and did not return. Both teams continue to nurse injuries and are battling a war of attrition after 20-plus playoff games. And both teams seem unwilling to take even one step back when it comes to intensity and will to win.
"There's a couple of good teams that have somewhat of a foundation to win games," said Stars center Joe Pavelski, who tipped in his 10th goal of the playoffs. "We definitely were closer to ours in Game 1, and we got away from it early tonight and it cost us."
After a nice start from the Stars, Tampa Bay turned up the power, drew three first-period power plays and scored on two of them. The Lightning scored three times in less than four minutes and had a 3-0 lead at the 15:16 mark of the first.
However, the Stars pushed back hard, had an 18-5 advantage in shots on goal in the second period, scored on their own power play and cut the deficit to 3-1.

In the third, Dallas was able to make it 3-2 on a perfect pass from John Klingberg to Mattias Janmark, and it looked like the game was on.
However, Tampa Bay shut things down, scored a goal, had that goal disallowed by an offside review, shut things down some more, and exited with a hard-fought 3-2 victory.
It was a textbook performance by the Lightning to not only not get flustered by the Janmark goal, not get flustered by the disallowed goal, and not fall apart when the Stars tried to apply pressure in the final 15 minutes. The Lightning had their back to the wall, the Stars were trying hard to seize momentum, and Tampa Bay batted back the challenge with authority.
And now we have a heck of a series starting.
The Stars already were without Radek Faksa and now might have lost Comeau, so that could really affect their ability to use a checking line against the Lightning's best players. Brayden Point has looked less than 100 percent and Nikita Kucherov battled through several tough hits on Monday, so that wear and tear also has to be monitored.
And yet, players keep stepping up.

Kucherov had two assists and 10 shot attempts. Defenseman Victor Hedman had two assists and six shot attempts. They came up with big offensive plays with the man advantage, shoving a dagger into a Stars team that took some foolish penalties in the first period.
The message was clear to Dallas that sitting in the sin bin could really hurt against the Lightning, something that this team has gotten away with a few too many times in the playoffs.
"That's where we lost the game today," said Janmark, who now has 36 penalty minutes in 22 playoff games. "We don't want to take penalties. We have taken way too many throughout the playoffs, but then I think when we get them, we've just got to go out and kill them, and we didn't manage to do that today, and I think that's where they won the game, so we've got to do a better job there."
Stars interim coach Rick Bowness said it was a bit of carryover from the third period in Game 1, where Dallas took two bad penalties but somehow managed to kill both.
"It's easy to explain: We lost faceoffs and we were turning the puck over and we were taking penalties," Bowness said. "It was an even game until we started taking penalties. It's faceoffs, turnovers and penalties -- things you can't afford to do against an elite team like that."
Still, the Stars didn't crumble. While Dallas did wobble and look weak at times in the first period, it bounced back in the second period and established some great scoring chances. Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was up to the challenge, and gave his teammates time to recover.

Even in the end, when Tampa Bay held the Stars to five shots on goal in the third period, Bowness said he felt his team was generating chances.
"The third period was even regardless of what the shot clock tells you," Bowness said. "Give them credit, they shut it down pretty good. But we cannot pass up opportunities to put the puck on the net."
It was another area where the Stars can look for improvement. But the bottom line is both goalies were excellent, and that allowed both teams to reload and find their focus. In the end, the series is tied _ and it should be tied.
"This was an emotional game," Tampa Bay forward Anthony Cirelli said. "There were ups and some downs. … They had a push there. I thought we did a pretty good job of weathering the storm there. Whenever you can come out with a victory is a positive for us, so we'll take some video, we'll look at some good and the bad things, and move on."
And that's the beauty of Game 2. The series is tied, both teams have to see which bodies might be healthy, and then they can look at three games in four days (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday). The Stars took advantage in Game 1, Tampa Bay took it back in Game 2, and now the fight for the Stanley Cup looks pretty interesting.
"The hole was a little too deep tonight, but there was no quit," Pavelski said. "We got our game back, and we need to stay at that level moving forward."

Game 3: Stars vs. Lightning (series tied 1-1)

Wednesday, 7 p.m. CT
Where:Rogers Place, Edmonton
TV:NBCSN
Radio:The Ticket 96.7-FM, 1310-AM
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.