Stars Beat Lightning
DALLAS — The Tampa Bay Lightning had been automatic when leading after two periods this season, with a 31-1-0 record. However, the Dallas Stars overcame a deficit after two, scoring two unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes.
Jamie Benn had one of those, one of his two goals in the game, Cody Eakin had three assists and Kari Lehtonen stopped 17 of 20 shots for the Stars in a 4-3 win over the Lightning on Thursday at American Airlines Center.
“I think we were due for one of those comeback character wins,” Benn said. “We had a strong third period, and found a way to win the hockey game.”
Jason Spezza and Stephen Johns also scored for Dallas (42-21-9).
Steven Stamkos had two goals for Tampa Bay (40-26-5), which got a goal and an assist from Nikita Kucherov and two assists from Alex Killorn.
“Extremely disappointing, especially the way we played for two periods,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We walk in there for a 15-minute break and come out and play the way we did, it’s a little puzzling to be honest.”
Johns tied it at 3-3 with his first NHL goal 9:42 into the third. Johns blasted
a slap shot from the right point that hit goalie Ben Bishop’s right pad and went through his five-hole.
“It was a bigger lift (than a normal goal),” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said of Johns’ goal. “If it would have been one of our other defensemen, it would have been a lift. But for a young guy like that to get his first, and for it to be that big a goal, I thought the building had a little extra in it for us.”
Benn added a second goal to put Dallas ahead 4-3 with 8:10 remaining, beating Bishop far post with a backhand.
Bishop stopped 29 of 33 shots in a losing effort for the Lightning before leaving the ice with 1:25 remaining.
Tampa Bay struck first when the puck deflected in off the right skate of Kucherov 12:15 into the game. Andrej Sustr’s wrist shot from the right circle deflected off Killorn’s stick and then hit Kucherov’s skate before landing inside the far post.
Dallas answered at 14:09 of the first when Spezza tied it with his 29th of the season. Bishop knocked the puck away from Spezza with his stick, but the puck got behind him and Bishop inadvertently knocked it in with his blocker while trying to swat at it in the air.
Stamkos pulled the Lightning ahead at 2-1 with a power-play goal off a rebound 3:15 into the second. Lehtonen denied the initial shot by Kucherov, but the rebound deflected over to Stamkos, who finished from the left circle.
Tampa Bay scored on the power play for the first time in 20 opportunities, since Feb. 28. Dallas had killed off 21 straight opposing power plays prior to the goal.
Benn tied it at 2-2 with his 35th goal of the season at 5:42 of the second off a Lightning turnover. An attempted pass by Sustr inside the Tampa Bay zone deflected off Eakin’s stick and fell to Benn, who beat Bishop with a wrist shot from the slot to the far post.
Stamkos added a second goal, his 33rd of the season, with 2:41 remaining in the second period on a tap-in at the far post to make it 3-2. Killorn set Stamkos up beautifully with a cross-ice pass.
Dallas outshot Tampa Bay 17-4 in the third period.
“Yeah, we played like a fragile team that was scared to lose and not hungry to close out a game or hungry to win a game,” Stamkos said. “There’s almost that feeling like we want to get to the playoffs here, but there’s still a lot of hockey left. We had the lead going into the third and just played a bit scared.”
With 22 seconds left, Anton Stralman cut Tyler Seguin’s leg in a collision near the Dallas blue line.
“He got a cut. We’ll know more tomorrow on that,” Ruff said.
