Johnson leads Lightning past Penguins

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[February 06, 2016]  TAMPA, Fla. -- Lightning center Tyler Johnson has two power-play goals and four points in his past two games.

So it's no surprise the Tampa Bay offense stayed hot Friday with a 6-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Amalie Arena.

Winger Ondrej Palat and defenseman Anton Stralman scored two goals apiece as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 at Amalie Arena on Friday.

Center Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning (29-18-4), who won 10 of their past 11 games.

"I think Pittsburgh stretched the game out a little bit," Johnson said. "They try and go for those longer passes and more chips whereas Detroit is a little more closer support, kind of slowing the game down a little bit. I think that's what is great about our team, we can play any kind of style. You know we have the skill and the guys able to do that, and our system works for it."

Right winger Patric Hornqvist and centers Sidney Crosby and Matt Cullen scored for the Penguins (25-18-7), who had a four-game win streak snapped.
 


The Penguins started the scoring at 4:53 in the first period with a goal from Hornqvist. The Lightning tied the game at 1-1 at 11:50 in the first period on a goal from Stralman.

The Lightning took a 2-1 lead at 18:34 in the first period when Killorn scored his ninth goal of the season on a redirection of a slap shot by right winger Nikita Kucherov from the point.

"I think that's what we stress every year to be a good defensive team," Killorn said." It's one of those things that we kind of just think the offense is going to come, and it has the past two years. I think this year was a little bit different. We weren't scoring at the beginning, but we were there defensively. We had to find ways to score, and it's nice to kind of find it at this point of the season."

Palat increased the lead to 3-1 at 6:04 in the second period when he scored a short-handed goal on a breakaway that beat Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in the five-hole. On the sequence, Lightning center Steven Stamkos outworked Penguins left winger Chris Kunitz at the blue line to free the puck for Palat.

Crosby scored his 21st goal of the season at 8:04 in the second period to make it 3-2 when he beat Lightning goalie Ben Bishop with a wrist shot high to the glove side. This time, Kunitz fought to get the puck off the boards and sent a pass to Crosby in the slot where he did the rest.

"We found ourselves playing catch up for much of the game," Crosby said. "We battled hard. At times we were able to climb back in the game but ultimately it caught up to us."

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Johnson made it 4-2 when he scored a power-play goal at 9:15 in the second period on a one-timer from the right circle with Kucherov getting the assist. Fleury was pulled after the goal for backup Jeff Zatkoff.

After Cullen's goal pulled the Penguins to 4-3 55 seconds into the third period, Palat scored his second goal of the game off an assist from Stamkos with 4:05 remaining to give the Lightning a 5-3 lead.

"We played the right way for the most part but we didn't get rewarded for it and that's hockey," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "The fact that we were pressing down the stretch, in my mind, that is probably the difference in the game."

Stralman added an empty-net goal with 2:04 left. Bishop had 27 saves.

"Obviously these two games after this break were important to us," Bishop said. "One team that we were tied with and one that is right behind us, so to be able to get these wins on home ice is important. Hopefully we can just keep this rolling while we go to Canada and play in two tough buildings. Hopefully we can just keep this snowball going."

NOTES: Penguins C Oskar Sundqvist made his NHL debut Friday after being called up from AHL Wilkes-Barre to replace injured C Eric Fehr, who is out for at least a month with a lower-body injury. Penguins coach Matt Sullivan said Sundqvist is "a big body that can skate well and his game should translate well to the NHL." ... Lightning C Cedric Paquette played Friday after leaving practice Thursday when he injured his right foot in a shot-blocking drill. ... With Penguins C Evgeni Malkin out for at least the weekend trip to Florida with a lower-body injury, C Matt Cullen moved to the second line between LW Carl Hagelin and RW Phil Kessel.

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