Around the NHL: Perry’s Double-OT Goal Forces Game 6

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

As the Dallas Stars were out-shot, 7-2, in overtime, not registering a shot until the closing minutes, it felt like it was a matter of time before the Tampa Bay Lightning secured the victory to claim the Stanley Cup. Then double-overtime reminded us just how hard it can be to get that fourth win to take hockey’s top prize.

Corey Perry scored his second goal of the game on a rebound at 9:23 of the second overtime to give the Stars a 3-2 win in Game 5 and force a Game 6 on Monday night.

In a balanced first period where the Lightning held a 10-8 advantage in shots, it was Perry who opened the scoring for Dallas, getting his fourth goal of the playoffs at 17:52.

Early in the second, the Lightning tied it up, as Ondrej Palat scored a highlight-reel goal to even the score. It was his 11th of the playoffs.

Early in the third, the Lightning grabbed the lead for the first time, as Mikhail Sergachev fired a blast from the point that beat Anton Khudobin and made it a 2-1 Tampa Bay lead at 3:38.

Dallas pushed back and managed the equalizer with 6:45 remaining in the third. On a rebound, Joe Pavelski was there to knock it home, scoring his 13th goal of the playoffs and 61st career playoff goal, setting a new record for American-born players.

Pavelski’s goal forced overtime, and the Lightning dominated the first 20 minutes of sudden death. Khudobin stood tall and kept the game tied into a second overtime.

That’s where Perry provided his heroics. A shot by John Klingberg was stopped and left a rebound and Perry was able to locate it out of the reach of Andrei Vasilevskiy and put it home to force Game 3 and bring the series back to 3-2.

Khudobin made 39 saves on 41 shots in the win. Vasilevskiy stopped 30 of 33. 

In addition to Perry’s two-goal game, Tyler Seguin assisted on all three Dallas goals. Brayden Point also padded his stats with a two-assist game.

The series continues with Game 6 on Monday night at 8 p.m.