The Dallas Stars forced a Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning after winning game 5 in double overtime. The Lightning currently lead the series 3 to 2 going into game six. To win the Stanley Cup team must win four out of seven games.
As the 2019- 2020 season comes to a close, hockey is ending about a week before the 2020-2021 season
would typically start in October. With an awkward break in the season due to COVID19, this year’s Playoff season has looked unlike any in the past. The 2020-2021 season will not begin until December 1 of 2020, and teams will have a break before beginning play after the covid-19 delay created an unusual season.
Starting with a round robin in pods, NHL teams played at the same venue depending on where their
conference pod was placed. Now, down to the final games of the season, the Lightning and Stars will faceoff under the same arena for all 7 with no home team advantage or fans present. After the initial round robin of games, teams were given a seeding and placed into brackets for 5 game playoff series. Teams advanced by winning 3 games, until the final two teams, Tampa Bay and Dallas face off for the Stanley Cup in a 7 game series.
Despite Challenges created by the bubble both the Lightning and the Stars have played competitive
games including two games of the series going into overtime and double overtime.
With Dallas missing key players from their penalty kill team, and at one point dropping down to 5 defencemen during the second period, they had to be more disciplined and avoid giving up power plays
during game 5. The stars had lost game 4 in over time due to a questionable penalty call and could not afford to put themselves into the same situation again in game 5.
The Lightning had 41 shots on net in the game, but only two managed to find the back of the net. The
Stars finished the night with 33 Shots on net with 3 goals. Dallas had one penalty during the first period,
and Tampa Bay had one penalty in the second period and one penalty in the third.
Dallas started the game with a goal early in the first scored by Corey Perry, followed by a Tampa Bay
goal in the second scored by Ondrej Palat. The game entered the third period tied up and Mikhail Sergachev scored for Tampa early hoping to wrap up the game in regulation, but a goal by Joe Pavelski in the minute 13 set the game up for overtime.
The Dallas Star’s Goalie Anton Khudobin has put up a strong showing throughout the playoffs and
Stanley Cup Finals and has been the Star’s go to for the series with a .917 save percentage. Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has been equally competitive and posted a .909 save percentage during the Playoff Season.
The game winner for the Dallas Stars was scored in double overtime by right wing Corey Perry. Will
Dallas pull off the must win for game 6 and force a game 7 to have any hopes at winning the Stanley
Cup this season, or will Tampa hold on and win the Stanley Cup?
Game 6 Will be held Monday night at 8pm. Game 7 if needed will be Wednesday night at 8pm.
Sources: NHL, ESPN
Daniel Finegan 
Paul McConnell 
Will Cunningham