Dallas Stars top Tampa Bay Lightning for 1-0 lead in Stanley Cup Final

The Dallas Stars continued their unexpected postseason run when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night in the Edmonton, Alberta, bubble.

Dallas' Joel Hanley, Jamie Oleksiak and Joel Kiviranta scored in the first two periods and the Stars survived the Lightning's third-period surge as they took a 1-0 lead for the third consecutive series.

That's a turnaround for a team that had lost six in a row before the coronavirus pandemic forced a shutdown in March, then was outscored 10-5 in the round robin and lost the first game of the playoffs.

Game 2 will be Monday night (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN).

The Stars were the rested team after last playing Monday night when they downed the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 5. The Lightning had one day off after playing back-to-back overtime games against the New York Islanders.

A look at the game:

Offense from defense

The Stars' defensemen, as expected, chipped in on offense, but not the usual suspects. Hanley, who had no goals in 46 regular-season games and seven postseason games, opened the scoring at 5:40 when he skated to the slot, took a pass from Roope Hintz and beat Vasilevskiy. Oleksiak also jumped into the play and scored off his own rebound. It was his fifth of the postseason after a three-goal regular season. Miro Heiskanen, John Klingberg and Esa Lindell, the Stars' top three defensemen, did pick up assists.

Defensive gem

The Stars held leading playoff scorer Nikita Kucherov without a shot until the third period. Brayden Point had no shots. The Lightning's goal was a fluke that went off the skate off Yanni Gourde and Hintz before going into the net. Stars goalie Anton Khudobin shined in the third period as the Stars were outshot 22-2.

Undisciplined

Tampa Bay's Pat Maroon was given a misconduct for shooting the puck into the Dallas bench at the end of the second period. That left the Lightning with 10 forwards for the first 10 minutes of the third period.

Cup in view

Usually the Stanley Cup doesn't come to the arena until it's ready to be presented. But the NHL had it visible at the rink for players to see. That was possible because there are no fans at Rogers Place.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NHL playoffs: Stars top Lightning in Game 1 of Stanley Cup Finals