Edmonton hosted the third match of the Stanley Cup final series between Tampa Bay and Dallas.

After two periods, John Cooper's wards were leading with a difference of four goals and eventually confidently took the upper hand - 5: 2.

And if the Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov again became one of the main stars of the meeting and established several statistical achievements, the Russian legionnaires of the Stars did not perform well.

For Tampa, winning the second match of the Stanley Cup Final was important not only in terms of score in the series, but also psychology.

For the first time in a long time, hockey players from Florida were able to successfully play the majority, but more importantly, spoil the mood of the opponent's goalkeeper.

In the previous four meetings, Khudobin missed a maximum of two goals, while reflecting at least 94.4% of the shots, and his inspired play was a key factor in the team's success.

Therefore, Cooper was especially pleased that his players were able to create problems for the Dallas goalkeeper and bring him out of balance.

Already in the opening of the third match, it became clear that the defeat in the previous game had a noticeable effect on Khudobin's morale.

The Russian was no longer so confident in himself, and the Stars defenders refused to support their goalkeeper.

Already in the sixth minute, the best scorer of the Texans, Miro Heiskanen, made an unsuccessful attempt to turn on the border of his own zone and was not ready for tough pressure from Ondřej Chamber.

Finn fell, and Kucherov grabbed the puck and confidently implemented an impromptu bullet.

85 seconds later, the position of "Dallas" became even more unenviable, and the author of the goal was Stephen Stamkos, who returned to the ice after injury.

The Tampa Bay captain sustained an injury to his lower body in preparation for the playoffs and had not played a single game prior to this match.

But neither the lack of practice nor the limited amount of playing time prevented him from writing his name in history.

The Canadian forward received a pass from the side, dealt with the defender and sent the puck exactly to the far nine.

Until now, only one hockey player has managed to miss almost the entire Stanley Cup, but immediately excelled in the final.

In 1940, Billy Taylor of the Toronto Maple Leafs did it.

“I found out that I will play the day before, during the rolling out.

This has been my dream for the past months.

It is clear that I missed a lot and that it will not be easy, but I'm already tired of watching the guys give themselves up to the fight in every match, and I am not able to help them ... My task was to play as much as possible.

I have a specific problem that I am working on.

Let's see what happens next, "- quoted by Stamkos press service of the NHL.

Considering the current form of the striker, Cooper did not break the first link and put Stamkos in the fourth three offensive with Cedric Puckett and Patrick Maroon.

But already in the middle of the first period, the mentor had to make adjustments to the composition again due to the fact that Stephen felt discomfort.

Cooper stopped releasing him on the ice, which is why the striker's playing time stopped at around 2 minutes 47 seconds.

“All the players on the bench gave out their emotions after Stammer's goal.

He only did five shifts, but it was a very effective five shifts that you rarely see in a playoff game ... It was pretty damn cool, ”Cooper said.

The two-goal advantage relaxed the Lightning a bit, which their opponents immediately took advantage of.

Kucherov and partners grossly made a mistake during the majority draw and allowed to reduce the backlog.

Roop Hintz fought great in the corner and found Jason Dickinson in the left throw-in circle, and he left Andrei Vasilevsky out of work with a one-touch throw.

According to the results of the first period, Lightning lost twice to the opponent in terms of the number of shots (8-16), but in the second game period they surpassed Dallas in this indicator by more than five times (21-4).

As a result, the Russian Stars goalkeeper did not cope with such a volume of work and conceded three times.

Kucherov was somehow involved in all of the Lightning's goals in the second period.

First, he took part in the drawing of the numerical advantage, which Victor Hedman completed with an accurate wrist throw, then organized a lightning-fast counterattack and marked the transfer to Braden Point.

Also, the striker was on the ice at the moment when Chambers upset Khudobin for the fifth time.

Thus, Nikita added two more points to the piggy bank for performance and became only the fourth Russian in NHL history who managed to score 30 points in one playoff.

In addition to him, only Pavel Bure, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Evgeny Malkin can boast of such.

“We're just sticking to the plan.

And, if necessary, we correct it.

I've always said: the simpler we play, the better it turns out.

Although I would not say that only the second period was successful.

We acted at the level for 60 minutes.

A couple more times like this, and everything will be fine, ”Kucherov said.

In the current playoff draw, Kucherov assisted his partners 23 times.

This is not only a record among domestic hockey players, but also the best record in the league since the 1992/93 season, when Wayne Gretzky and Doug Gilmore each gave 25 assists.

In addition, Nikita took eighth place in terms of points scored in the Stanley Cup among Russians in history - 91 (36 + 55), beating Sergei Gonchar (22 + 68).

His next landmark is Igor Larionov (30 + 67).

Nevertheless, two points on the “goal + pass” system and participation in four out of five successful combinations allowed Kucherov to become only the third star of the match.

The first and the second were named Hedman and Point, who chalked up three points each (1 + 2).

Moreover, the Swede became only the third defender in NHL history with ten or more pucks in one playoff.

According to this indicator, he bypassed the legendary Bobby Orr and Brad Park, coming close to Brian Leach (11) and Paul Coffey (12).

And the Canadian became the sole leader of the sniper race with 11 accurate shots and continued to chase his linemate in the scorer's dispute.

Braiden has 28 points.

“As Kucherov said a couple of days ago, we are not here for personal records.

I'm happy that I scored, but the team's victory is much more important.

Our goal is the same - to win the Stanley Cup, ”Hedman said.

Stamkos did not miss the opportunity to praise his partners.

So, he noted the leadership qualities of Kucherov and Hedman and stressed that both have made tremendous progress.

“Head has taken his game to a fantastic level and Cooch is simply the best player in the world.

In any case, I am optimistic about the next match, ”Stamkos said.

The final period turned out to be one of the most closed in the current Stanley Cup final.

The teams made a total of only seven shots on goal, but one of them became accurate.

Heiskanen took advantage of the confusion at the gates of the enemy and interrupted his "dry" streak of eight meetings.

Vasilevsky finished the match with 22 saves and won the 16th playoff win, repeating Nikolai Khabibulin's club record.

Khudobin was replaced by Jake Oettinger and watched from the bench the performance of his partners.

“My replacement is the coach's decision.

He wanted to change something, shake up the team.

I don't need rest or anything like that.

If you came out to play in the Stanley Cup final, then you must be ready for any load, ”Khudobin said.

Let in the third period "Dallas" managed to excel and keep their goal intact, but they lost both Russian forwards.

In an attempt to carry out a power reception, Alexander Radulov fell and crashed his head into the side, and Denis Guryanov received a puck in the face.

After that, both no longer appeared on the ice.

“In the second period we lost the team play, pace and focus.

We looked really bad.

We organized the first four Tampa goals for ourselves.

I don't even know what could have been changed in the composition to prevent this from happening.

But now we have to get this game out of our heads and get ready for Friday, ”said acting Dallas head coach Rick Bowness.