5 things to know: Lightning strike early, often to put away Stars

It wasn't pretty Thursday night in Tampa Bay for the Dallas Stars, who surrendered four goals in the first period on their way to a 6-0 loss to the Lightning at Amalie Arena.
The Stars, who fell to 1-2-1 on their current road trip and 29-23-5 on the season, were knocked out of third place in the Central Division and are now in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Here are five things from Thursday's game.

1. Lightning put Stars away early

The Stars came into Thursday's game having allowed just 26 first-period goals, fewest in the league. But Tampa Bay tallied four times in the first, all of them coming in a 7:21 span. That put the Stars in too big a hole against too good a team.
"We got down by too many too early," said Stars center Jason Spezza. "They are a good team for a reason. We couldn't get anything past their goalie."
The Lightning, on the other hand, were lighting the lamp early and often.
Steven Stamkos scored seven seconds into the Lightning's second power play of the game to make it 1-0 at the 7:19 mark. A little more than five minutes later, Mikhail Sergachev tallied on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle, and it's 2-0. Just 14 seconds later, Tyler Johnson got behind the Dallas defense and scored on a tap-in to make it a 3-0 game.
At that point, Anton Khudobin was pulled after allowing three goals on seven shots and in came Landon Bow, who was making his second NHL appearance. The first shot Bow faced came from the NHL's top scorer, Nikita Kucherov, who scored from the slot to push the lead to 4-0 at the 14:40 mark.
Khudobin returned for the second and the Lightning tacked on two more. Alex Killorn banked one in off Khudobin's skate and it's 5-0. Stamkos scored his second of the night on the power play to make it 6-0. That ended the scoring for the night.
Bow played the third in which neither team scored.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots to shut out Dallas for the second time this season. He pitched a 35-save shutout in a 2-0 win over the Stars in Dallas on Jan. 15.
Overall, it was an impressive performance by Tampa Bay, which has scored 22 goals during its four-game winning streak. The Lightning, who pushed their league-leading points total to 90 (43-11-4), also extended their points streak to eight games (6-0-2).
"Every time we made a mistake, or a bounce went their way they made us pay," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. "You've got to tip your hat. That's a really good hockey team. Any time we did break through they've got a brick wall back there. Tip your hat to the best team in the league.
"We're going to learn from this. When you get your rear end handed to you by the best team in the league, you learn, and you get better. We'll get better from this."

2. Montgomery explains goalie rotation

Montgomery was moving his two goaltenders in and out of the game Thursday.
Khudobin got the start and was replaced by Bow 12:53 into the first after allowing three goals on seven shots and the Stars down 3-0. Bow played the rest of the first and Khudobin came in to start the second period with the Stars down 4-0.
"I wanted to slow the game down after the third one," Montgomery said. "And I told Dobby right away when he came off that he was going back in to start the second. I thought if we were going to have an opportunity to come back and win, Dobby was going to lead that charge."
But that didn't happen with the Lightning scoring two more goals in the second to push their lead to 6-0. So, Bow played the final 20 minutes.
"When things didn't materialize, it was a good opportunity to give Bow some NHL experience," Montgomery said.
Bow stopped both shots he faced in the third period and had four saves on five shots for the game. Bow's first NHL game came earlier this season against Pittsburgh and some high-end talent. This time it was the league's best and highest-scoring team, which meant more high-end talent.
"They are the best team for a reason," said Bow. "They are quick, they are skilled, and I think that is good for my development. I am going in against the fastest team in the league when they are in their prime, so it's good for me to take what I can from that game and build on that."

3. Comeau misses game; Klingberg leaves in third period

Stars forward Blake Comeau sat out the game due to an upper-body injury, so Valeri Nichushkin, who was expected to be a healthy scratch, took Comeau's spot in the lineup. As for Comeau's status moving forward, Montgomery said the veteran forward is "probable" for Saturday's game at Carolina.
Defenseman John Klingberg left Thursday's game in the third period after blocking a shot off the stick of Tampa Bay forward Anthony Cirelli. Montgomery did not have an update on the status of Klingberg following the game.
"I didn't get a notification on x-rays, so I don't have an answer for you," Montgomery said. "I think he's fine. We were just being precautionary. But I don't know exactly."
Meanwhile, goaltender Ben Bishop, who missed his fourth game with an upper-body injury, remains day-to-day.
"Just getting better here, trying to get back as soon as possible," Bishop said. "It's kind of lingering so we are just trying to work through it."

4. Loss, Blues win drops Stars into wild-card spot

The Stars dropped into the first wild-card spot after their loss and St. Louis' 4-0 victory in Arizona.
The Stars and Blues are tied at 63 points, but the Blues have played one fewer game, so they get third place based on points percentage.
Thursday's win was the eighth straight for the Blues, who have been on quite a run for the last month. They are 12-2-1 (25 points) since January 10 and have made up 12 points on the Stars, who are 6-6-1 (13 points) during that same time frame.

5. Stars allow six goals for third time

The Stars fell to 11-15-3 on the road and 11-12-2 vs. the Eastern Conference. ... Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is 5-0-1 in his career against the Stars. ... The Stars have allowed six goals in a game three times this season: Thursday at Tampa Bay; Dec. 15 at Colorado; Dec. 12 at Anaheim. Their season-high for goals against is seven, which happened once: Oct. 9 vs. Toronto. ... The Stars outshot Tampa Bay 32-26 and had a 55-47 advantage in shot attempts. ... Scoring chances were 24-22 Dallas, according to naturalstattrick.com. ... The Stars were 0-for-2 on the power play and 3-for-5 on the penalty kill. ... The Stars won 34 of 58 faceoffs (59 percent). ... Tyler Seguin won 14 of 22 faceoffs (64 percent). Radek Faksa won 9 of 13 (69 percent). ... Esa Lindell led the Stars with 22:11 of ice time.
Here is the lineup the Stars used to start the game along with scratches and injuries.
Roope Hintz - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Jamie Benn - Jason Dickinson - Valeri Nichushkin
Andrew Cogliano - Jason Spezza - Brett Ritchie
Mattias Janmark - Radek Faksa - Denis Gurianov
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen - Roman Polak
Jamie Oleksiak - Taylor Fedun
Anton Khudobin
Landon Bow
Scratched:Connor Carrick, Julius Honka
Injured:Blake Comeau (upper body), Ben Bishop (upper body), Tyler Pitlick (wrist surgery), Martin Hanzal (back), Marc Methot (knee surgery), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches)

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.