Tyler Johnson scored two third-period goals for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 5-3 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Thursday. Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist, Ondrej Palat had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves for Tampa Bay (33-15-5), which led 2-0 in the first period on goals by Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman. Dallas (23-20-8) tied it 2-2 in the second period on goals by defensemen John Klingberg and Alex Goligoski. Johnson's game-winner was a deflection of a wrist shot by Brian Boyle from the left point with 3:37 remaining, a goal that traveled through the five-hole of Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen. Kucherov scored into an empty net with 1:17 remaining. Stamkos scored his 28th of the season 3:11 into the first period. He tapped in a wobbling puck after a shot from the point by Mark Barberio deflected off the stick of Dallas' Patrick Eaves. Tampa Bay went ahead 2-0 at 6:42 of the first period when Hedman beat Lehtonen far post with a slap shot from the high slot. Lehtonen set up like the shot was coming to his glove side but allowed Hedman's sixth of the season into the left side of the net.
Cody Eakin blocked Hedman's initial shot, but the puck deflected back to his skates and he capitalized. Dallas scored twice within 15 seconds late in the second period. Klingberg scored his 10th of the season at 15:21 on a snap shot from the edge of the right circle that beat Vasilevskiy high on his blocker side. Goligoski tied it with his second of the season when he tapped in a pass from Vernon Fiddler off the rush at 15:36. It was Goligoski's first goal since Nov. 28 against the Minnesota Wild, 27 games ago. The Lightning regained the lead with 7:33 remaining when Johnson scored a power-play goal on a shot that sailed under Lehtonen's glove. Kucherov got the primary assist with a cross-ice pass from the left side. Dallas scored 1:14 later when Trevor Daley rang a wrist shot off the far post from the right circle. Vasilevskiy was making his first start since being recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League after the Lightning waived Evgeni Nabokov on Sunday. Tampa Bay was down to five healthy defensemen after Jason Garrison left the game with a lower-body injury early in the third period. Dallas finished a two-game homestand 0-1-1.
Stars Quotes
Lindy Ruff: "Kari wasn't good enough for us tonight. He's got to be better for us. That power-play goal for me is a goal that he misread. It should have been a save. I thought we worked as hard as we could work, battled as hard as we could battle. They had the only two opportunities in the first period, went in the net. We had eight or nine. They've got a real good team that we took a lot of time, a lot of ice. We're frustrated. Too many went in."Erik Cole: "We fought our way back into it. I think we settled in. The first 10 minutes, we were definitely on our heels there, and it was a tough bounce on the first goal. They gained the momentum and it drew us back a little bit, but I thought the guys did a nice job of hanging tough. We got some big goals in the second. The third period was just a little back and forth and unfortunately we ended up on the wrong end."
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