In Tampa, the visiting Montreal Canadiens were looking at a quality win on Tuesday night, but the Lightning’s Corey Perry scored with just 20 seconds left in regulation to knot the game at 4-4 and force extra time.
The Canadiens were left with the loser’s point, as Ondrej Palat scored hit for the game-winner 56 seconds of elapsed time later for the 54 win.
“I think both teams played well at times and both teams probably left some play and some time out there they probably want back,” Lightning assistant coach Derek Lalonde said. “For us it was certainly in the first, the first half of the first and the first half of the third.
“In the end, as I told the guys, a credit for them to find a way, like we’ve done all year long … hanging in there and executing on the goalie pull at the end.”
Tampa head coach coach Jon Cooper is on NHL COVID-19 protocol.
Brayden Point hit for a pair of goals Tampa.
“The game doesn’t change, but some of the timing was a little off,” Point said. “Little bit off in the early parts of the game, but I kind of felt better as the game went on.”
Maxime Lagace made 27 saves in the Tampa win.
Montreal took a 1-0 off a goal from Lukas Vejdemo in the opening frame.
The Lightning replied off the two strikes by Point for a 2-1 lead.
The Lightning improved to 21-6-4.1
Tampa’s Ross Colton put the Bolts up, 3-2, after Montreal’s Rafael Harvey-Pinard tied the game, 2-2.
“I thought we had good execution, we were moving the puck around,” Perry said. You just stick with it. They broke a stick, had to go to the bench and get a new one. The guy was late coming back, and I found out I was all alone.”
Montreal dropped to 7-21-4.
“Little things can make a difference in giving you success and those things you control,” Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “I thought tonight we did that and we’ve got to duplicate it every night.”
Kale Clague and David Savard scored to push the Canadiens into the lead at 4-3.
Sam Montembeault. made 32 saves in the Habs loss.
“For sure it’s frustrating; on top of it, this is the second time they’ve done this to us, they did it to us at the Bell Centre last time,” Monteambeault said. “But it’s mostly frustrating because it’s happened this year where we were down in the game by a little bit and we came out for the third period with no energy.
“But this time we did the opposite; we played an excellent third period. That’s why it hurts even more. We wanted to go get that win. But unfortunately they tied it with 19 seconds left and it really hurt us.”
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