By the time the game was just over five minutes old, the Tampa Bay Lightning had scored on two breakaways. It was all they needed, as the visiting Bolts, coming off four straight losses and two straight shutouts, buried the host Montreal Canadiens 6-1 on Tuesday, despite several injuries to key players like goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, while defenseman Victor Hedman failed to return for the second, playing just 6:14 in the game.
Game Recap
After forward Brayden Point opened the scoring a few minutes in, Pontus Holmberg doubled the lead coming out of the box after serving an interference penalty. Nikita Kucherov scored the dagger late in the period, putting it past a scrambling Jakub Dobes in net and Canadiens defense as a whole to make it 3-0.
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Goalie Sam Montembeault came out for the second, ultimately earning a similar same stat line after allowing three goals on 13 shots (to 14 for Dobes), just over two frames instead of one. At the opposite end of the rink, Lightning backup Jonas Johansson stood relatively tall. He allowed just one goal on 27 shots against, as Canadiens forward Oliver Kapanen batted one in out of the air off a rebound after Nick Suzuki had ringed it off the post.
At that point, the score was 4-1 with just under one minute to go in the second. Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh ensured any thoughts of a comeback on the Canadiens’ bench were cut short, as he tallied the final two markers of the evening on shots Montembeault should have had. The first came from a bad angle just over one minute into the third. The last came off a power-play point shot just before its midway point, as the Canadiens continue to search for answers in net and in general, now having lost two in a row and four of the last six, many of those in embarrassing fashion. While injuries have played a factor for the Habs as well, they can’t serve as an excuse especially against the Lightning tonight.
Having missed an opportunity to leapfrog the Lightning into the Atlantic with a victory, the now 15-11-3 Canadiens dropped to below .500 at the Bell Centre and out of a playoff spot altogether. They visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday. Now, at least temporarily in first place in the division (with the Boston Bruins still playing), the 17-11-2 Lightning continue on their current road trip against the New Jersey Devils that same night.
