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DETROIT -- It's a highlight tape that Tyler Johnson's dad breaks out on occasion. Johnson was 10 years old, playing for the Vancouver Vipers in the Brick Invitational Hockey tournament in Edmonton, Alberta, on a team that also included future NHLers Jordan Eberle and Travis Hamonic. The Vipers were in overtime when Johnson got the puck and skated down the right side, ripping a slapper for the game winner. His 10-year-old teammates piled on him in the corner for a celebration that wasn’t all too dissimilar to the one he brought out of his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates on Thursday night. Johnson had to go back 14 years to think of a goal he scored that carried anything close to the same magnitude as the ones he scored against the Detroit Red Wings in Tampa’s 3-2 Game 4 overtime win that evened their series 2-2. The stakes this time around were just a little bit higher. No offense to the organizers of the Brick Invitational. For nearly the entirety of Game 4, the Red Wings seemed in absolute control. They had a Joe Louis Arena shutout streak against Tampa that stretched back to November. Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek looked borderline unbeatable, while his counterpart Ben Bishop had knocked a puck in on his own goal at one point. Then came the 1-minute, 17-second span in the third period that could shift the outcome of this entire series, and potentially the Eastern Conference side of the Stanley Cup playoff bracket. Johnson scored the overtime winner but his goal 14:34 into the third period was arguably more important. Until that moment, it looked like the Red Wings were on their way to opening up a 3-1 series lead that would have put the favored Lightning in a really tough spot heading home. Like most hockey plays, it didn’t start with the goal scorer. Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman stole the puck in the defensive zone and quickly skated up ice before sending the puck over to Johnson in the neutral zone. At that point, Johnson turned on the jets. “I saw Johnny with good speed there on the left side. When he gets going, it’s hard to stop him,” Stralman said. Johnson blew past Darren Helm and found himself looking at Mrazek, a goalie the Lightning hadn’t been able to solve in Detroit until right about that moment.  “I think Mrazek thought I was going to take it around the net,” Johnson said. “He gave me the short side. Luckily for me, it went in.”
Johnson and Ondrej Palat have been playing together for years, going back to their days in the American Hockey League. They make up two-thirds of Tampa’s "Triplets" line and the two have developed a bit of a sixth sense that is sibling-like when on the ice together. They also share a common trait. There’s no quit in their game. There would be no playing this game out just because Detroit looked like it was going to cruise its way to a 2-0 win. Johnson broke the seal with his goal and then Palat tied it by fighting for position in front of Mrazek against Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson to make sure he was in the right spot when Johnson’s pass inevitably ended up on his stick. “I’ve played with Pally for four years,” Johnson told ESPN.com in late March. “I can tell you where he’s going to be at all times.” He proved it on that one but that wasn’t even the play that impressed teammate Brian Boyle most. Boyle admires the mix of determination and skill that both Palat and Johnson have and he said nothing captured it quite like the play Palat made in overtime. All Palat will get is a secondary assist -- well, that and a win -- but that moment captured Palat’s efforts perfectly to Boyle. Palat and Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser were battling along the boards and Palat kept driving forward in a relentless effort to get the puck headed in the right direction. “It looked like he was trying to get tackled at the red line. He won the battle to get past the guy,” Boyle said. “That sums up Ondrej Palat’s game.” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman took it from there and spotted Johnson setting up for a shot across the ice. As he skated past the Lightning's bench, Hedman heard shouts from his teammates that it was a three-on-one. He could be patient for that one extra split second before sending the puck over to Johnson, who buried the winner. Just like that, the series took a completely different turn. The Lightning celebrated in the corner, the Red Wings headed to their dressing room, stunned at what just happened. They went from having a stranglehold on the series to a series now locked up at 2-2. Red Wings coach Mike Babcock doesn’t typically address his team after games, but he did this time. He felt the Red Wings stole Game 1 in Tampa Bay. He felt the opposite in Game 4. This one was stolen from the Red Wings and in the process, this series was exactly where Babcock thought it should be -- even at two. “Here it is, it’s the best of three,” Babcock said. “Let’s play. ... Let’s get up and get regrouped and get on with it.” When Johnson was 10, his overtime winner kept the Vipers alive to eventually play in the championship game, where they beat, coincidentally enough, a team with a young star named Steven Stamkos. It’s too early in this tournament to know where Johnson’s big moment will lead this time around. He has got Stamkos on his side now, which certainly helps. All we know is this: That flurry of a finish has put the Lightning in considerably better shape in this series. It releases pressure. Now, they can head home and play the game that got them here -- relentless, skilled and with players capable of changing any game in a moment’s notice.
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