In Montreal Friday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning kept their playoff aspirations alive with a 4-2 win over the Canadiens.
Andrei Vasilevskiy got the win Friday over Montreal – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The win leaves the Bolts a point back of the second wild card spot currently held by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Lightning have lost only two of their last nine games.
“I think it just shows the type of character we have,” the Bolts’ Anton Stralman said. “Whoever’s in or out of the lineup, it doesn’t matter, we all work for each other and everybody fills their role and plays their part. It’s fun playing like this. Everybody can feel the passion we have and everybody’s coming along, playing well together, and we’re effective when we play like that. Unfortunately it hasn’t been consistent enough this year, that’s why we are where we are, but we’re still giving us a chance. That’s all we can ask for at this point. It’s obviously not in our hands, but who knows? We do what we can do, and then we’ll see.”
Yanni Gourde struck twice and  Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn scored for the Bolts.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves in picking up the win.
The Lightning have one game left and the Leafs have two and can clinch with a win in either match.
“We can’t really control anything, but we’ll have to wait and see [Saturday] night how the game unfolds, but we’ll make sure to prepare for Sunday like it’s our season on the line,” Tampa’s Victor Hedman said. “We’ll see what happens [Saturday] night, but it’s out of our control.”
Dwight King and Artturi Lehkonen scored the Habs.
“I think tonight we had some grade-A chances that we didn’t bury, so it could have been a bit of a different, or tighter, maybe, score than it was,” Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said after the loss.
The Canadiens finished their home schedule and play the Detroit Red Wings Saturday.
WATCH: All Lightning vs. Canadiens highlights
Carey Price made 18 saves in taking the loss.
“That was a desperate team we played tonight,” Price said. “They came out firing and they obviously capitalized on some chances that we gave them, and you’ve got to give that team credit, they played pretty well tonight.”
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