In Tampa, the visiting Montreal Canadiens watched an early 2-0 lead evaporate in the Florida heat and eventually lost, 5-4, to the Lightning on Saturday.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 39 saves in the win.
“We dipped our toes into this game, and Montreal dove in head first,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “So good on them, but good on our guys to regroup after the break. [Killorn’s first] goal was the big swing and then …”
Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Max Domi,Ben Chiarot, and Jordan Weal scored for the Habs.
“I thought we had a good start, [17-0] on shots, we had a 2-0 lead,” Canadiens forward Phillip Danault said. “We should’ve played better defensively. We didn’t play like we’ve played the last couple of games.”
Alex Killorn struck for two goals for the Bolts.
“The first period, we played the exact game we wanted to,” Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry said. “We were skating, moving the puck, playing good defensively. They got better in the second, but I think we got away from what was working for us in the first.”
Tampa’s Mitchell Stephens scored his first NHL goal.
“A pretty cool feeling just to get my first, and it’s a big win for our team too,” Stephens said. “That’s two really big points for us.”
Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli also scored for the Lightning.
“There haven’t been many games that we’ve done that this year, coming back from a two-goal [deficit], especially that early in the game,” Killorn said. “I looked up and it was [17] shots to zero. It’s a little embarrassing, and the crowd gets on you. But after that, I thought we played really well.”
[WATCH:Â All Canadiens vs. Lightning highlights]
Carey Price made 25 saves in the loss.
“I really liked our [first] period, it got sloppy in the last minutes of the first, and they came out with the momentum,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. “The second period really hurt us with the amount of goals we gave and there’s different people on all of them. We tried to make a game of it, but the damage was done in the second.”
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