In Montreal, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning thumped the Canadiens, 7-4 on Thursday night.
The win pushed the Lightning to within two points of the Toronto Maple Leafs for third in the Atlantic Division.
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three points in the win.
Steven Stamkos hit for a double and three points,
“I think our game’s rounding out,” Stamkos said “I don’t think it’s perfect by any means but we’ve put together a really solid stretch where we really needed those points.”
Matt Tomkins made 27 saves in the win, it was his first start since early November.
“There was a lot of push from them, we knew that they weren’t just going to sit back in the third (period),” Tomkins said. “So obviously we weren’t surprised that they pushed, maybe they had a little bit more than we anticipated. But I thought we stayed composed. Obviously we gave up a lot more than we wanted to but at the end of the day you get two points and you get a win, and that’s most important.”
Tampa improved to 43-26-7 off their fifth win in six matches.
“We got two points and we’re inching our way closer to a playoff spot, so I’m pretty happy about that,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.
The Canadiens took a 1-0 lead on a marker from Joel Armia, who had a double in the game. He scored off a rebound at 2:37 of the opening stanza.
Nicholas Paul tied the game, 1-1, midway through the first, scoring off a loose puck on the power play.
Tampa took a 2-1 lead on a marker from Michael Eyssimont at 16:26.
“We haven’t done that much this year, but that was self-inflicted for sure,” Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher said about the Canadiens’ struggles in the second period. “We’ve been playing some pretty good hockey. Hopefully that’s not reminiscent of who we are. They’re a good team but we didn’t really make them earn it. … Made it a little bit easier on them, especially playing a back-to-back. So it’s disappointing.
“I am proud of the way the guys continued to fight in the third period, but I guess that’s a bit of a tougher lesson for us to learn and one that you make sure doesn’t happen again.”
Montreal dropped to 29-34-12.
“They’re a playoff team and I’ve said many times we want to play playoff hockey, so we’re going to do all the scrums and stuff,” Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovsky said. “That’s what we’re trying to get better at and I feel like the closer we get to a playoff spot or even now, just building up the games will be intense and we want to fight and win the physical part of the game, and then also obviously win on the board.”
Armia collected his double at 4:42 of the middle frame to tie the game, 2-2.
That just ignited the Lighting offense which reeled off four straight goals.
Stamkos potted his first of the game at 7:58 for a 3-2 lead to Tampa, scoring off a shot shot from the left circle.
Paul added his double midway through the second for a 4-2 ;ead.
“I just got some nice space in the scoring areas and hit the net,” Paul said.
Brandon Hagel stretched the lead to 5-2 at 13:18,
Kucherov ballooned the advantage to 6-2 at 17:45, scoring off the power play.
In the third period, the Canadiens tried to rally back with a pair of goals.
Slafkovsky closed the gap to 6-3 with a goal at 8:40.
Cole Caufield made it 6-4 at 11:51, but that was as close as the Habs would get when Stamkos collected his double with an empty-net strike 54 seconds left on the game clock for the 7-4 final count on the scoreboard.
Cayden Primeau made 29 saves in the loss.
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