Corey Perry scores a cross-decade Stanley Cup Final milestone in Stars’ Game 4 loss to Lightning

Before this Stanley Cup Final – a series the Lightning lead 3-1 after beating the Stars on Friday – Dallas hadn’t appeared in the championship round since 2000.

It had been over a decade for Corey Perry, too.

The 35-year-old forward, who signed with Dallas in the 2019 offseason, won the Cup with Anaheim in 2007, a 13-year gap in Final appearances that made his production in the Stars’ 5-4 overtime Game 4 loss a bit sweeter.

When Perry scored in the second period, he became one of three NHL players to go at least 13 years between Stanley Cup Final goals. He also became the first player in league history to score regular-season and playoff goals in September, a pandemic-forced quirk that underscored just how unique this Stars run in Edmonton has been.

A couple of hours before Lightning defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk scored the game-winner 6:34 into overtime, Perry’s goal gave the Stars a 3-2 lead midway through the second period and embodied the grit this series has required.

Center Tyler Seguin, skating on Perry’s line after a lineup switch, had possession of the puck as he skated with a clear look on Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. But then Tampa Bay’s defense forced Seguin to lose his balance and control just in front of the net.

As he moved past Vasilevskiy, Seguin managed to push the puck behind the goaltender, just in front of a wide open net.

Perry nudged it over the line.

His wife, Blakeny, one of a few NHL family members who made it into the NHL’s bubble as Canadian residents, cheered from a lounge in the fan-free Rogers Place arena.

“Everyone’s into it, everybody’s rolling, everybody’s playing,” Perry said on Sportsnet during the second intermission. “We’re rolling four lines, and we’re not sitting back, and that’s a good thing for us.”

Perry joins Mark Recchi (1991 with Pittsburgh and 2006 with Carolina, and Dino Ciccarelli (1981 with the Minnesota North Stars and 1995 with Detroit) as the only two players with 13-plus years between Stanley Cup Final goals.

The gap represents enough time for Perry to transform from a second-year player to the Stars’ second-oldest player, to play over 900 games, to become the 2011 regular-season league MVP, and to sign with Dallas on a one-year contract last offseason.

But perhaps not much has changed in Perry’s daily approach.

Before Game 4, Sportsnet showed Perry’s pregame preparations from each of the first three games of the Final in side-by-side frames.

He completed the same number of stick taps and twirls, stretches and distant stares before finishing with his one shot on goal and one between-the-legs interference penalty on Tampa Bay forward Brayden Point, who was also whistled for embellishment, late in the third period.

The repetitions helped Perry ready for a productive game that was anything but routine.