In Tampa, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves, and the Lightning thumped the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1, on Wednesday night.
“It was a good game for us coming off of that (holiday) break, and you could tell the guys were excited to get back at it,” Tampa’s Victor Hedman said. “Big win for us. It was good to get back at it and I’m excited about the game tomorrow.”
Alex Killorn and Brayden Point scored in the first period to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead.
“We came out skating, and it’s a big part of our team,” Point said. “When we’re playing our best, we’re moving our legs. We did that early in the first period and it set the tone for us.”
Point’s goal came off the power play.
“His determination … it’s impressive, his will to succeed,” Tampa coach Jon Cooper said. “He’s a difference-maker, and difference-makers do things like that.”
Point hit for a double in the game with his second coming at the 16 minute mark of the middle frame, for a 3-0 lead.
“Remarkable,” Hedman said. “I had a front-seat view again. He’s a special player.”
Montreal dropped to 15-17-3.
“We kind of struggled getting through the neutral zone against them,” Montreal captain Nick Suzuki said. “They’ve been together for a long time. One of the best teams in the League.”
Brandon Hagel scored at 8:31 of the third to push the Tampa advantage to 4-0.
“There are some guys that aren’t afraid of the area, and some guys that stay away from that area,” Cooper said. “[Hagel] is a true competitor. There’s guys that have a little bit of ‘dirt under their nails,’ and Hags is one of those guys. It really works in his favor.”
Kaiden Guhle struck for the Habs only goal in the game with less than three minutes left in the game to break the shutout bid, and the 4-1 final.
“It was nice to score, and to get one on the board is good going into tomorrow,” Guhle said. “Maybe we’ll have a little bit of a better feeling going into tomorrow. No time to think about this one.”
Jake Allen made 34 saves in the Canadiens loss.
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