TAMPA, Fla. -- Getting three goals from rookies in a must-win game, the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied back from a deficit late in the second period with four straight goals in a 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars at Amalie Arena on Sunday.

"It's just a matter of going out there with the confidence to do it," said Lightning rookie Adam Erne, who scored his second and third career goals. "We want to contribute. We don't want to just be passengers on a run like this."

The Lightning (39-29-10) picked up two points in the standings, moving within three points of idle Ottawa and Toronto for third place in the Atlantic Division and the last wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Boston, four points ahead of the Lightning, now sits in second place in the Atlantic and hosts the Lightning in a huge game Tuesday night. In the last six games, Tampa Bay has five come-from-behind wins and an overtime loss where it scored the tying goal in the third period.

"It just comes down to our season," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of his motivation to the team for the final period. "The discussion in the room was, 'Do you want to give yourself the chance to play past next Sunday?' If you don't, then play the way we did in the second. ... We got a couple of breaks."

Tampa Bay tied the game in the final minute of the second period and took the lead behind a pair of rookies as defenseman Jake Dotchin fired a hard pass that Brayden Point one-timed for his 14th goal.

The final minutes were a wild flurry -- Dallas, down 5-2 with four minutes to play, scored once and looked to pull within a goal with 1:13 left as Tyler Seguin caught a rebound that bounced up off the crossbar and hit it in mid-air. But for the second time Sunday night, the Stars had a goal taken away on review as officials found that Seguin high-sticked the puck, making contact above the plane of the top of the goal.

Another goal, with 30 seconds left, was immediately waved off because it came a split-second after Tampa Bay goalie Peter Budaj's mask came off while stopping a shot. Tampa Bay added an empty-net goal from defenseman Anton Stralman with 1.4 seconds left.

"Definitely didn't seem like it was going to go our way with the three disallowed goals," Stars forward Jason Spezza said. "All you can do is keep coming at them and try to do a better job."

Dallas (32-36-11) led in the second period after two goals but couldn't do more as spoiler, losing for the third time in four games. Budaj, getting his first home start since being acquired at the trade deadline, made 23 saves to earn the win.

"We didn't do a good enough job of keeping the game simple for a long enough time," Spezza said. "We were trying to win the game. They made plays on their chances and we didn't."

Ondrej Palat added a 4-on-3 power-play goal -- his 17th -- with 6:33 left to extend the lead to 4-2. Erne padded the lead with his second goal of the game 70 seconds later on a spin-around shot with 5:23 left.

Palat's power-play goal came after Dallas was called for two penalties in 45 seconds. Radek Faksa was penalized for tripping, but Vladislav Namestnikov was called for embellishment to set up 4-on-4 play before Dallas' Remi Elie was called for hooking to set up the 4-on-3 advantage.

After Erne made it 5-2, Dallas got a goal with 3:20 left from Brett Ritchie, who poked in a rebound behind Budaj to cut the deficit to two goals.

The Lightning had a rough second period, but got a tying goal with 17 seconds left to regain momentum and tie the score at 2-2 entering the final period.

Defenseman Braydon Coburn scored on a rebound off a shot by Stralman after a loose puck -- Coburn's fourth goal of the season -- to tie the game after Dallas had dominated the second period with two goals and nearly added a third.

The Stars tied the game just 1:49 into the second at 1-1 on a goal by Gemel Smith, who redirected a long shot from defenseman Esa Lindell to beat Budaj. Tampa Bay went on the power play with 15:50 left, but a turnover led to a short-handed goal by Smith -- Cooper challenged the goal, arguing Dallas was offsides -- and the goal was overturned on replay.

Even with that, the Stars took the lead with 9:03 left on Spezza's 14th goal. He spun around defenseman Victor Hedman and gave Dallas the 2-1 lead.

The Lightning led 1-0 after the opening period on a goal from Erne, who came in wide in front of the net, skated past goalie Kari Lehtonen and shot just inside the far post for his second goal. Fellow rookie Yanni Gourde had the assist to earn a point in four straight games.

NOTES: The Lightning got two players back from extended injuries, as C Tyler Johnson played after missing 11 games and D Jason Garrison returned after missing four games, though he did not finish the game due to another lower-body injury. Johnson had an assist on Tampa Bay's fifth goal. ... The Lightning were still without C Cedric Paquette and had C Greg McKegg as a healthy scratch. ... Dallas was without F Patrick Sharp (hip, fifth game), F Jiri Hudler (sixth game, lower body), F Antoine Roussel (15th game, upper body), RW Ales Hemsky (second game, hip), LW Curtis McKenzie (second game, eye), D Jamie Oleksiak (second game, lower body), with D Stephen Johns as a healthy scratch.