Vasilevskiy made some key saves and just looked big in net. That was key for Tampa Bay to hold strong against Dallas' push.
The Lightning's penalty kill was also excellent. Their pressure on the PK made it hard for the Stars, scoreless in four power-play opportunities, to make plays.
But that's part of the evaluation for Dallas, too.
The Stars' power play has struggled (1-for-11, 9.1 percent in the Final) in part because they don't have close support. I'd like to see a few more players near the puck to give that support to make it harder on the Lightning to pressure and easier to make plays. I'm not seeing a lot of options available for relief.
There's also room to improve at 5-on-5; look at the turnover by Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen that led to Kucherov's breakaway goal that opened the scoring at 5:33 of the first period. There was no one near Heiskanen to support him and Tampa Bay forward Ondrej Palat did a great job of angling him and putting him in a position to where he felt he had nothing.
A lot of defensemen will try to chip that up the wall, but Heiskanen is going to try to make a play because that's his game. Most of the time he does; it's just this time he messed up, but again, nobody was near him. He had no close support.
On the other side, the Stars are taking too many penalties, but some of those can be chalked up to the Lightning's skill.
They're hanging onto the puck a second longer because they realize they have time, maybe more time than they're accustomed to having. They have speed too, so they hold the puck and look for that extra play and it's drawing some penalties, like Dallas forward Alexander Radulov's hook on center Blake Coleman at 19:37 of the first period. That led to a power-play goal by defenseman Victor Hedman 54 seconds into the second period that gave Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead.
The Lightning are trying to skate away from you, you know they're dangerous and you start thinking you have to do anything you can to prevent them from making that play, and it ends up being a penalty.
Tampa Bay looks very confident with the puck, especially when it gets it over the blue line, and its using its bodies to create room and separation.
It's really hard to defend against that, like when you're chasing Kucherov a bit because he does a little escape move. It feels dangerous when it's happening against you and a little bit of worry, a little bit of panic comes in and that's when the sticks come up and the hooks happen.
The key for the Stars is to get back to keeping the Lightning on the outside. Dallas is at its best when it keeps the play on the perimeter, but you see the goal from Palat in Game 3 (at 18:55 of the second period), he's able to penetrate inside and he ends up getting a chance from right in front.
The Stars have to box out better, keep the Lightning on the perimeter, limit them to shots from outside. Then they can play their game.
Tampa Bay is the most skilled team Dallas has played so far, but I don't know if it's right for the Stars to be worried yet. They've found ways in the playoffs to combat skill and be resilient all the way through. They need to rely on that going into Game 4.
