Joel Armia had a goal and an assist to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, completing a sweep against Florida’s NHL representatives. The Canadiens defeated the Florida Panthers Saturday night behind a pair of goals from Kirby Dach. They swept a Florida road trip against the Panthers and Lightning for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
Game Recap
The Canadiens jumped out to a 1-0 lead on an Alex Newhook goal in the first period. Brandon Hagel scored early in the second period for the Lightning before the Canadiens retook the lead on goals from Christian Dvorak and Jake Evans.
Evans has been red-hot of late, now scoring in five consecutive games, matching Noah Cates and Jonathan Marchessault for the longest active run in the NHL.
Jake Evans can't be stopped!
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 29, 2024
3-1 Habs. pic.twitter.com/FdVz55ZS80
Nikita Kucherov scored late in the second period to cut the Canadiens lead to 3-2.
Armia extended the Canadiens lead with a goal with just over eight minutes left in the third period.
Brendon Gallagher scored an empty netter to give the Canadiens their final margin of victory.
Sam Montembeault had 21 saves for the Canadiens, while Jonas Johansson made 32 stops for the Lightning. The Lightning were without the services of Jake Guentzel, who was injured in Saturday night’s victory over the New York Rangers with an upper-body injury and is listed as day-to-day.
The Canadiens improved to 5-1-0 (10 points) since Dec. 17 to lead the NHL in wins and points over that span.
This is the season’s first meeting between the two teams and the only one to be played in Tampa. The Lightning will travel to Montreal to face the Canadiens on Jan. 21 and Feb. 9, which will be the last game before the NHL breaks to participate in the 4-Nations Face-Off.
