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Lightning strike twice: Johnson nets league-leading 10th playoff goal

Johnson goal

Tyler Johnson had a strong sophomore campaign and he’s gotten even better since the playoffs began. After giving the Lightning a 1-0 lead on a shorthanded breakaway early in the first period, Johnson found the back of the net again less than six minutes later:

That was his 10th goal in just 15 playoff games. To put that in perspective, no other NHL player has more than seven goals so far in the postseason. He also accounts for roughly 27% of Tampa Bay’s playoff goals.

Most goals in a postseason in NHL’s cap era was Crosby with 15 in 2009. Only 13 players have scored more than Johnson’s 10 in that span.

— James Mirtle (@mirtle) May 19, 2015

Johnson has been part of the very effective Triplets line with Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat. The trio has been the Lightning’s top three goal scorers so far, with Steven Stamkos tied for fourth with three markers. That being said, the Triplets line wasn’t the difference early in Game 2 as special teams was instead the story.

That might be to the Lightning’s benefit as their five-on-five play was an area of concern in Game 1.

The Lightning finished the opening frame up 2-1. The Rangers have averaged just two goals per game in the playoffs and while that’s served them well enough so far, they’ll obviously need to do better tonight to extend their series lead to 2-0.

Tyler Johnson had five of the Lightning’s nine shots.

— Andrew Gross (@AGrossRecord) May 19, 2015

Follow @RyanDadoun