Palat, Johnson, Stralman lift Lightning past Penguins

TAMPA-- Ondrej Palat and Anton Stralman each scored two goals to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 6-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Amalie Arena on Friday.
Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn also scored for Tampa Bay (29-18-4), which has won eight straight games at home and 10 of its past 11 overall.

"I think we all believe we have a pretty good offense when we're rolling," said Johnson, who had two assists for his first three-point game since April 9. "I don't know if we've seen that throughout the entire season, but for the last streak, I think our offense has arrived."
Patric Hornqvist, Sidney Crosby and Matt Cullen scored for Pittsburgh (25-18-7), which had its win streak end at four games.

The Lightning took a 2-1 lead with 1:26 left in the first period on Killorn's ninth goal. He redirected a shot by Nikita Kucherov to beat Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
"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," Killorn said. "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 scored his first goal of the game shorthanded at 6:04 of the second period to increase the Lightning lead to 3-1. Steven Stamkos beat Penguins forward Chris Kunitz to a loose puck and passed it to Palat, who beat Fleury five-hole on a breakaway.

Crosby scored his 21st goal two minutes later to pull Pittsburgh to within one. Kunitz won a puck off the boards and found Crosby streaking in the slot for a high wrist shot that beat Lightning goalie Ben Bishop on the glove side.
"We were trying to play catch-up for a good chunk of the game there," Crosby said. "We make it 3-2, and they get that power-play goal and we're down by two again. It's not exactly the way you want to play a game. I thought we climbed back into it a number of times, but ultimately it caught up to us."

It was Johnson who scored on the power play to give the Lightning a 4-2 lead. He beat Fleury with a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Kucherov at 9:15 of the second.
It was Johnson's seventh goal of the season and his second in as many games.
"I think having the [All-Star] break was a big thing," Johnson said. "It helps you refocus. I think the guys are having fun. We know we're in a playoff race and these are the games that matter."
Fleury was replaced by backup goalie Jeff Zatkoff after Johnson's goal. Fleury allowed four goals on 14 shots in his first regulation loss since Jan. 6.

Cullen scored 55 seconds into the third period to pull the Penguins to within 4-3.
"We were in it to the end. I would have liked to have made one more save to keep it a one-goal game," said Zatkoff, who made 13 saves on 14 shots. "I thought the guys battled hard all game. From the drop of the puck to the end, I thought we played really well and probably deserved a better outcome."
Palat pushed the Lightning lead to 5-3 with his second goal of the game at 15:55 in the third, and Stralman scored into an empty net with 2:04 remaining in the game.
"We got our legs in the second period," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "They are a fast team and they came out strong. We were fortunate to be ahead after the first period. They are a tough team to play."

Hornqvist opened the scoring with his 11th goal at 4:53 of the first period. Stralman tied it 1-1 at 11:50 of the first.
Before Stralman's goal, the Penguins held a 10-1 advantage in shots on goal; they outshot the Lightning 12-5 for the period.
"It's discouraging; we played hard, we played the right way for the most part and we don't get rewarded for it," Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought we could have been a little bit smarter on the goals, but I thought our energy was good and we controlled the play for the first period. But that's hockey. Sometimes we have to find a way to stay the course."
Bishop made 27 saves to earn his sixth win in his past seven starts.