EDMONTON — Too many Joels, and not enough juice from the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Lightning looked like a team still tired from closing out their conference final just two days earlier, and the Dallas Stars took advantage with a 4-1 victory to take Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.
It was two Stars named Joel — Kiviranta and Hanley — who did the damage, sandwiching goals around one by Jamie Oleksiak in the win. Yanni Gourde had the only tally for Tampa.
While Kiviranta continued his playoff emergence with his fifth goal, it was the little-known fill-in Hanley with not just his first playoff goal to open the scoring, but his first NHL goal — period.
Meanwhile, goaltender Anton Khudobin continued his march towards a Conn Smythe Trophy with a dazzling, 35-save performance.
Wasn’t it so 2020 that the Cup-opening goal was scored by none other than Hanley, the undrafted journeyman forced into the Stars lineup by injury. Tampa tied the game on a fortunate play, when a rebound off of Khudobin’s pad ricocheted off of Gourde’s foot, then bounced off the foot of Stars forward Roope Hintz and into the Dallas net.
Oleksiak gave Dallas its lead back midway through the second, but the dagger would come from Kiviranta with just 28 seconds remaining in the middle period. The swift Finn attacked one against four, with Tampa defenceman Mikhail Sergachev guilty of backing in on his netminder.
Sergachev blocked a Kiviranta wrist shot, but the Stars winger collected the loose puck and fired it home. It was a goal against that never should have been for Tampa, a half-chance that gave Dallas a commanding 3-1 lead.
From there the Stars hung on through a third period that saw Tampa outshoot the Stars 22-2. The shots were 36-20 for Tampa overall.
That’s Dallas’s style. They can rope-a-dope with the best of ‘em, and ran out the clock on a Tampa club that pulled its goalie with four minutes to play. Jason Dickinson scored into the empty net.
The Lightning will have to be much better to beat this upstart Dallas club. The good news for Tampa fans is their team certainly has another level at which to play.
Game 2 goes Monday night in Edmonton.
