Tyler Johnson scored twice as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 5-3 Thursday in a battle between the NHL’s top two scoring teams.
Johnson scored the game-winner with 3:37 to play in the third as he deflected a Brian Boyle shot past Kari Lehtonen to make it 4-3.
It was Johnson’s second goal of the game as he had made it 3-2 Tampa Bay (33-15-5) at 12:27 of the third on the power play but the Stars (23-20-8) responded 1:14 later as Trevor Daley’s shot found its way through Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots while Lehtonen made 24 saves. Tampa Bay entered the game averaging 3.17 goals a game while the Stars averaged 3.14.
The Lightning had jumped out to an early 2-0 lead as Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman scored within the first seven minutes of the game.
However, second period goals from John Klingberg and Alex Goligoski erased the two-goal lead.
Nikita Kucherov added an empty net goal.
Ondrej Palat assisted on the final two goals, taking him to 100 career points. Also Thursday, J.T. Brown played in his 100th NHL game.
The Bolts went 1-for-3 with the man advantage while Dallas was 0-for-4
Defenceman Jason Garrison left in the game in the second period with a lower body injury and did not return.
Brett Connolly and Nikita Nesterov were scratched for Tampa Bay.
The Lightning return to Amalie Arena Saturday when they host the Los Angeles Kings at 5 p.m.