TAMPA — Ken and Debbie Johnson almost always catch their son's games on television in the comfort and quiet of their Spokane, Wash., home. Going to a bar is too hard, Ken says, as there's often more talking than watching."We can get excited, for sure," Ken, 53, says. "Even by ourselves, as old as we are."Their son happens to be the talk of the NHL playoffs. Lightning center Tyler Johnson, 24 — who has gone from undrafted and unwanted to unbelievable — leads the league with 11 goals this postseason, including a hat trick in Monday's 6-2 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final against the Rangers as Tampa Bay tied the best-of-seven series at one each."You're almost like, 'What is this all about?' " Ken said by phone Tuesday. "We would have never imagined that. We've just got to pinch ourselves and make sure we're not dreaming it, for sure."No, this is a real-life fairy tale. Johnson, 5 feet 8, was passed over by every NHL club in three years he was eligible for the draft. He was cut by a team in the United States Hockey League, the country's top junior league for players age 20 and younger. He considered giving up hope on the NHL. But Johnson, this season a first-time All-Star and playoff hero, said he's no longer driven by the doubters, but rather by the first true believers. His hat trick fittingly came on the 79th birthday of his grandfather Mike."I try to be the best I can and play for my family," Tyler said. "They sacrificed so much … and I'm living my dream."It was Debbie, 49, a speed-skating coach, who got Tyler on the ice before he could walk. "He spent a lot of time lying on the ice crying, for sure," Ken said. "Then we'd put a hockey stick in his hands and he'd forget about the skating." It was Ken who coached him for six years as a youth, who strapped Tyler in the back seat of the family's Chrysler minivan and drove him seven hours every Friday night to Vancouver, British Columbia.All the vacation time for Ken, a former longtime circulation district manager for Spokane's Spokesman-Review newspaper, and Debbie, who now works in insurance, were spent on trips to tournaments in Winnipeg, Calgary and other places."When it came time to pack for vacation, my wife would rather be packing for Hawaii or Mexico," Ken said. "But now we're packing to go to Saskatoon. That was our vacations. For (Tyler) to say we sacrificed, that kind of stretches the word. We loved every minute of it."• • •When Ken and Debbie first signed Tyler up for youth hockey at age 5, all parents were mandated to watch a video from USA Hockey.It made clear the daunting task ahead. Fewer than 1 percent of youth hockey players make it to the NHL."We knew all along it would be a long shot, and that's not what we wanted," Ken said. "In the back of my mind, if he was able to get an education out of it, that would have been a home run for us, for sure."But Ken said colleges didn't recruit Tyler. Tyler tried out for the USHL's Tri-City Storm in Nebraska in 2007 despite just recovering from mononucleosis and was cut after camp.Former Storm coach Bliss Littler calls it a "huge mistake," saying his staff didn't focus enough on what Tyler did during the regular season.Littler caught the highlights of Tyler's hat trick Monday night. He said by phone Tuesday the Lightning center is his favorite player to watch. Littler often brings up Tyler's story to kids he coaches now, calling him a "great success story." "Sometimes you just have to keep playing and don't let any coach take your dream away," said Littler. "If you want to point to your kids about a hockey player, all you have to do is point to Tyler."• • •Johnson had to wait until the 11th round of the 2005 draft of the junior Western Hockey League to land with his hometown Spokane Chiefs, which may have been a blessing in disguise.The Chiefs' then-coach was Bill Peters, now coach of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. He said by phone Tuesday that Johnson is one of the most intelligent players he has coached. Johnson played a "shutdown" role for the Chiefs, facing opposing teams' top line, and was a key cog on the penalty kill. The Chiefs won the 2008 Memorial Cup, awarded annually to the champion of the Canadian Hockey League, made up of the WHL and two other leagues. Johnson — a rookie — was named the Cup MVP."He's one of those guys that when the lights come on the biggest the stage, the better he plays," Peters said.Yet, after three years with the Chiefs and no pro prospects, Johnson considered moving on, maybe playing college hockey in Canada, working toward a degree in a medical field. "We had a long discussion, and I was like, 'Are you still having fun?' " Ken said. "And he said he was, so let's play one more year and go from there."After a sensational fourth year in Spokane, scoring 53 goals in 2010-11, Johnson had plenty of NHL suitors as an undrafted free agent, including the Minnesota Wild (where he attended development camp), the Chicago Blackhawks and the Lightning. Peters, then coach of Chicago's minor-league American Hockey League team, pushed hard for Johnson, but the center showed his trademark savvy in a phone conversation."He asked me how many years I had left in my contract," Peters said. Johnson predicted Peters would soon be in the NHL, and he was right. Peters later in 2011 joined the staff of Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman sealed the deal with Johnson with a phone call, an under-the-radar signing in March 2011 that now seems like the Lightning hit the lottery.Last season with the Lightning, Johnson was a Calder Trophy finalist as one of the league's top rookies. He has followed up with an even better second season, ranking second on the team in the regular season with 29 goals and centering one of the league's most dangerous lines, the "Triplets," with Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov.As his parents ask if it's too good to be true, Johnson, a winner at every level, seeks a fitting ending, a Stanley Cup."It'll really be storybook," Lightning coach Jon Cooper says, "if he's lifting a 35-pound trophy over his head."