Lightning 5, Stars 3
All-Star Tyler Johnson scored his second goal of the game with 3:37 left in the third period to snap a tie and Andrei Vasilevskiy won for the fourth time in five NHL starts as visiting Tampa Bay edged Dallas.
Johnson’s deflection of Brian Boyle's shot from the left point eluded Kari Lehtonen to give Tampa Bay a 4-3 lead and Nikita Kucherov sealed it with an empty-net goal with 1:17 to go. Kucherov and All-Star Steven Stamkos each recorded a goal and an assist, defenseman Victor Hedman also tallied, Ondrej Palat notched two assists and Vasilevskiy made 33 saves.
Alex Goligoski registered a goal and an assist in a 15-second span while fellow defensemen Trevor Daley and John Klingberg also scored for the Stars. Lehtonen stopped 24 shots for Dallas, which fell to 2-3-1 in its last six contests while Tampa Bay improved to 6-1-1 in its last eight.
Kucherov whipped a cross-ice pass into the right faceoff circle for Johnson, who wristed a shot past Lehtonen during a power play with 7:33 left in third period for a 3-2 lead. The Stars answered 74 seconds later as Daley moved down the left wing on a rush and hammered a shot just past Vasilevskiy’s glove.
Stamkos redirected defenseman Mark Barberio’s deflected shot 3:11 into the contest and Hedman blasted the puck past Lehtonen from the high slot at 6:42 for a 2-0 advantage. Klingberg beat Vasilevskiy to the stick side from the right circle with 4:39 left in the second and Goligoski deflected Vernon Fiddler’s feed 15 seconds later to tie the game.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Boyle, normally a center, got his assist in the third period while filling in on defense after D Jason Garrison left the game with a lower-body injury. … Tampa Bay extinguished all four Dallas power plays and is 23-for-24 on the penalty kill over its last seven contests. … Dallas recalled RW Brett Ritchie from Texas of the American Hockey League and placed LW Travis Moen on injured reserve. Ritchie was scratched. … Daley notched his fifth goal in the last nine games.