Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, in Edmonton, was over early.

Oh sure, it was close after one period, 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but it was over.

The Bolts tacked on another three goals in the middle frame and then played footsy with the Dallas Stars in the third period to win, 5-2, for a 2-1 series lead.

The Lightning were bolstered by the return of Steven Stamkos who popped a goal in the first period.

“It was just an amazing experience to share with my teammates,” Stamkos said. “There’s been a lot of hard work and different things going on behind the scenes. Just to be able to get out in a game and have an impact in a game which a month ago may have never been possible. It was amazing to be part of a huge win for us. I was just really happy to obviously contribute in a game that I didn’t play too much.”

Nikita Kuchero had an assisted goal in the first to get the Bolts’ offense in gear.

“He’s (Stamkos) been working so hard to come back,” Tampa’s Kevin Shattenkirk said. “He hasn’t given up. It’s just a true testament to him as a player and as a person, and it’s the reason why he wears the ‘C’ on his jersey.”

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves to get the win.

“But I think just the lift he (Stamkos) gave us, A) being able to dress and play, B) scoring, I don’t think the guys were going to be denied,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “We’ve gone through this dance this whole playoffs playing with 11 forwards, so it wasn’t anything that these guys were panicked about. As you saw, especially in the second period, it was game on.”

Dallas’ offense sputtered all night, they had four shots on the goal in the third, after launching the same number in the middle frame.

Four shots in the third will not get anything accomplished.

“We certainly know we’re not going to get that sort of win in a couple nights,” Shattenkirk said. “I think we just wanted to make sure we stuck with our game. Again, we know when we play our style of hockey, it’s hard to [beat us].”

Jason Dickinson and Miro Heiskanen had the goals for Dallas.

“You regroup and go on to the next one,” Dickinson said. “It’s one game at the end of the day. We’re down 2-1. We play the next game and win, it’s tied 2-2, new series.”

Victor Hedman, Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat also scored for Tampa Bay.

“‘Stammer’ obviously he’s our leader, he’s our captain,” the Bolts’ Anthony Cirelli said. “To have him with us there, you give Stammer one opportunity he’s going to make it count. Just having him there with us, the emotion was high, he got that goal there for us which was a huge, huge goal and … we fed off that.”

Game 4 is set for Friday night with Game 5 on the schedule for Saturday.

“You want to have a say and you want to contribute, so tonight was an amazing experience to get out there and help our team,” Stamkos said. “But it’s about winning the next game and going from there.”