In Montreal, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning scored four times in the opening stanza on Tuesday and then held off a Canadiens rally in the third period for a 5-3 win.
Matt Tomkins made 22 saves in the win, his first in the NHL.
“I think there was a little determination to our game, there was desperation to our game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “The guys, we were in our meal room today and I think from breakfast to lunch we must have watched the highlights of the game on the big screen 30 times. So it was etched in the boys’ heads what happened last night. We didn’t need to show any of it.”
Tampa improved to 6-3-4.
“To go up 4-0 pretty early on, maybe your mind starts to race a little bit,” Tomkins said. “So, I certainly had a lot of thoughts going through my head, but I just tried to stay calm and composed and do my job. And obviously we knew they were going to push, at home, and trying to get the crowd into it, so I just tried to fend them off as long as we could.
“So, obviously we had enough to get the win, which is great.”
The first period was all Tampa with four unanswered goals in the frame.
Nikita Kucherov got the offense rolling with just 22 seconds of fresh ice used in the game for a 1-0 lead.
Nicholas Paul scored the first of a double for him at 7:15 for a 2-0 lead.
On the power play, Tampa pushed the advantage to 3-0 on a goal from Alex Barre-Boulet at 9:09.
Michael Eyssimont put the Lightning up 4-0 at 13:50.
“We’re a bit of a fragile team right now,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We’ve lost a bit of confidence, so that was pretty much the first period. I felt we got back in the game, that nobody disappeared after the first, because it’s easy when it’s going well. In life you’re judged when things aren’t going well, not when they’re going well. I liked that not one of our players tried to hide and we fought right to the end.”
Montreal dropped to 5-5-2.
“I think there was still a lot of hockey after the first period,” Montreal forward Tanner Pearson said. “You look at their game last night, same thing, kind of, right? So, you know it can happen, I think we’ve scored four goals in two periods before so it’s just a matter of sticking with it.”
The score stayed 4-0 to Tampa into the third period.
Nick Suzuki hit off the power-play goal at 6:50 to get one back for the Habs and a 4-1 score.
“We wanted to respond after they scored two goals in the first part of the third period,” Barre-Boulet said. “I think we had a good response, we got back on offense, so I think we learned something in Toronto.”
Montreal then added a second goal, just 34 seconds later, on a strike from Michael Pezzetta for a 4-2 deficit for the Habs.
Paul blunted the rally at 17:40 with a power play strike to push the Lightning up, 5-2.
“I don’t think there’s any quit in this room, and I think we’ve been down a few goals before,” Pezzetta said. “And you can look around the locker room and everyone knows that we’re going to come out and at least try the best we can to come back, and I think that’s positive for our group to just know the fight that’s in everybody.”
Montreal scored with 19 seconds left on the regulation clock on a marker from Christian Dvorak scored with 19 seconds for the 5-3 final.
Jake Allen got the start and surrendered four goals on just nine shots before getting the hook late in the first.
Sam Montembeault made 22 saves in relief.
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