Johnson's 2 Goals Lift Lightning Over Stars, 5-3

Tyler Johnson scored two third-period goals, lifting the Tampa Bay Lightning past the Dallas Stars 5-3 on Thursday night.

Johnson tipped Brian Boyle's shot from the top of the left faceoff circle down between goalie Kari Lehtonen's legs to break a 3-3 tie with 3:37 remaining. He'd put Tampa Bay ahead 3-2 with a power-play goal at 12:27.

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Nikita Kucherov scored into an empty net with 1:17 to go. Kucherov and Steven Stamkos each had a goal and an assist. Ondrej Palat assisted on Tampa Bay's final two goals.

The Stars' Alex Goligoski had a goal and an assist.

Stamkos and Victor Hedman scored on the Lightning's first two shots.

Dallas defensemen John Klingberg and Goligoski scored in the second period, and Trevor Daley tied the game at 3 in the third

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves for Tampa Bay. Lehtonen had 25.

The Lightning missed shots on good scoring chances early, but scored with their first shot on goal at 3:11. Mark Barberio's partially blocked shot bounced to the front of the net, where Stamkos swept it past Lehtonen.

Stamkos assisted on Hedman's goal. Cody Eakin blocked Hedman's first shot at the top of the slot, but Hedman retrieved the puck and fired it into the lower right corner of the net.

Dallas tied the game with two goals 15 seconds apart.

Klingberg connected at 15:21 of the second period. In the right faceoff circle, Tampa Bay's Brenden Morrow dropped to block a possible shot, but Klingberg skated to his left and shot across Vasilevskiy into the left side of the net.

Then Goligoski tipped in Vernon Fiddler's pass from low in the right circle to the front of the net.

NOTES: The Stars recalled RW Brett Ritchie from Texas of the AHL to replace LW Travis Moen (lower body injury), who went on injured reserve. . Tampa Bay's Cedric Paquette entered the night with a five-game point scoring streak and six goals in his last four games, but was held scoreless. . Vasilevskiy was recalled Sunday from Syracuse of the AHL. He started in place of Ben Bishop, who allowed five goals on 28 shots in his most recent game against Dallas. ... Both teams were in the first of three games in four nights. . The fathers of Tampa Bay players and coach Jon Cooper accompanied the team on the two-game trip to St. Louis and Dallas.