By ,
Published May 02, 2016
Dallas, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - In a matchup of the NHL's highest-scoring teams, the Tampa Bay Lightning delivered a win.
Tyler Johnson scored two third-period goals, including the game-winner as the Lightning ended their four-game road losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.
"Johnny's line, who's been snakebit a little bit here for five or six games, they took over that third," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.
Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov also scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves in the win.
Dallas erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 but never led in its second straight loss. Kari Lehtonen allowed four goals on 28 shots.
"Kari wasn't good enough for us tonight," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.
The Stars received their offense from their defensemen as John Klingberg, Alex Goligoski and Trevor Daley lit the lamp in defeat.
Trailing 2-0 with time winding down in the second period, the Stars struck twice in 15 seconds to even the score. Klingberg netted his 10th goal of the season when he had the patience to wait for the sliding Brenden Morrow to get out of the shooting lane before wristing the puck off the post and into the net.
Seconds after the ensuing faceoff, Vernon Fiddler knocked Hedman down in the neutral zone to help create a three-on-one. He received the return pass from Shawn Horcoff, and his shot was redirected out of midair by Goligoski and past Vasilevskiy.
Tampa Bay restored its lead with a power play goal 12 1/2 minutes into the final period. Kucherov fired a hard cross-ice pass to Johnson on the weak side, and Lehtonen could not move right-to-left fast enough to stop Johnson's shot.
Dallas, though, was not down for long. Just 74 seconds later, Daley jumped into the play to create a three-on-two and snapped the puck past Vasilevskiy to tie the score again.
The end-to-end action continued, and the Lightning went back ahead less than three minutes later. After a neutral zone takeaway, Johnson deflected Brian Boyle's shot for his second goal of the period.
Johnson nearly recorded a hat trick with a great individual effort with the empty net, but he fanned on the shot. Seconds later, Kucherov was able to put the puck in the empty net.
Tampa Bay got a fortunate bounce and went up 1-0 just a few minutes into the game. Mark Barberio's shot from the blue line skipped toward the net, and Stamkos jammed it past Lehtonen for his 28th goal of the season.
After killing a penalty, the Lightning scored their second goal on their second shot of the game 3 1/2 minutes later. Hedman's initial shot was blocked, but he followed up with a one-timer that beat a screened Lehtonen.
Game Notes
Tampa Bay's Cedric Paquette lost his four-game goal streak ... Stars captain Jamie Benn's assist extended his point streak to five games ... The Lightning are outscoring opponents 64-43 in the third period while the Stars are being outscored in the third period by a 56-42 margin ... Tampa Bay's J.T. Brown played in his 100th NHL game.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/lightning-top-stars