@jayRecher

Joe Pavelski had two goals and two assists & Roope Hintz added a goal and two assists as the visiting Dallas Stars defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Friday night at Amalie Arena.

With Dallas clinging to a slim chance of a playoff berth, they came out of the gates with an apparent sense of desperation.

They opened the scoring at 5:50 of the first period, when Jamie Oleksiak jumped on a rebound in front and fired it past Lightning netminder Curtis McElhinney to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

The visitors doubled their lead in the second period when Pavelski, who just emerged from the penalty box after serving two minutes for a tripping call, took a long pass from Hintz and backhanded a shot past McElhinney to make it 2-0.

Tampa Bay answered back when Blake Coleman scored at the 11:11 mark of the middle stanza, taking a pass from Victor Hedman and scoring on the breakaway to the stick-side of Dallas goaltender Anton Khudobin to cut the Stars lead to 2-1.

The one-goal advantage didn't last long as Pavelski scored his second goal of the night under two minutes later to put Dallas up 3-1.

Hintz snapped one high over the glove of McElhinney with just 13.3 seconds left in the 2nd to make it 4-1 and let almost all of the air out of the building.

Each team scored a goal in the third, with Joel Kiviranta finding the back of the net for the Stars at the 3:49 mark, and Alex Barre-Boulet adding a power play goal at 8:29.

Khudobin stopped 26 of the 28 shots he saw on the evening. McElhinney stopped 26 of 31.

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SCORING SUMMARY

1st Period

Dallas - Oleksiak - (Heiskanen, Kero) - 5:50

2nd Period

Dallas - Pavelski - (Hintz) - 5:17
Tampa Bay - Coleman - (Hedman, Goodrow) - 11:11
Dallas - Pavelski - (Hintz) - 13:05
Dallas - Hintz - (Kiviranta, Pavelski) - 19:45

3rd Period

Dallas - Kiviranta - (Pavelski, Benn) - 3:49
Tampa Bay - PPG - Barre-Boulet - (Killorn, Palat) - 8:29

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PENALTY SUMMARY

1st Period

Tampa Bay - Coleman - (High Sticking) - 8:36
Dallas - Dickinson - (Tripping) - 16:49

2nd Period

Dallas - Pavelski - (Tripping) - 3:08

3rd Period

Dallas - Lindell - (Boarding) - 5:52
Dallas - Hanley - (Tripping) - 7:58

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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action tomorrow night as they travel to Sunrise to take on the Florida Panthers. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm with the pregame starting at 6:30pm on NewsRadio WFLA.

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