Spezza has key goal, Stars beat Lightning 5-3

Jason Spezza had a goal and an assist in Dallas’ 5-3 victory over Tampa Bay Thursday night.

It’s official, Steven Stamkos has scored his 500th career point at the age of 25. Despite Tampa Bay out-shooting the Stars 15-8 in the second, Kari kept the Stars lead at 4-1.

Just five games in to the season, the Lightning quickly turned a fast start into cause for alarm.

Heading into the third down 4-1, the Lightning cut into the lead at the 7:06 mark on a goal from Vladislav Namestnikov who was assisted by Stamkos.

With 5:46 left in the opening period, the captain Jamie Benn put the puck past Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop, set-up by a wonderful pass from Jason Spezza. “I want to get him back in and I want to get him playing, but I think I have to get his head in the right place first”.

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach and 2014 Jack Adams Award finalist Jon Cooper likely won’t have to dust off that expensive law degree anytime soon.

Nesterov was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for hitting from behind, and the Stars converted with another power-play goal, making it 4-1 on defenseman Jason Demers’ first goal of the season at 18:12.

Stars: Cody Eakin scored on a wrister off a nice pass from Mattias Janmark at 9:34 of the second period.

The Stars tied it at 1 at 8:58 on Seguin’s goal.

However, a poor game by the Stars in Colorado and a lackluster performance from Niemi opened the door for Lehtonen to reassert himself, and he’s taken advantage.

Klingberg hasn’t been bad, but he’s set himself up for high expectations in Dallas and will need to live up to a seven-year deal he earned thanks to an outstanding rookie year. Defensively, the Buffalo Sabres are allowing three goals per game and are killing 63.6 percent of their power play chances. Thanks to Cooper’s steady hand, Stamkos’ versatility and willingness to play wherever needed, the development of defenseman Victor Hedman and the chemistry of the triplets line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov, the Lightning should again be one of the best teams in the league this season. The Stars recalled Curtis McKenzie from the AHL on Wednesday to replace Eaves.

Now they’re hoping to display that same type of resiliency as they look to avoid their first three-game regular-season slide since an 0-3-2 stretch in March 2014.

For Stars fans that kept up with the team last season, the collapse in Colorado told a familiar story; a promising start that quickly became a horrific nightmare on the back of sloppy team defense and a pile of opponent goals.