This is what playoff hockey looks like and the Tampa Bay Lightning are proving their mettle each night in March. Tonight at Amalie Arena the Bolts beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 behind two goals and an assist from Steven Stamkos, a highlight reel goal from Victor Hedman and a strong performance by goalie Ben Bishop.
After a back and forth start to the first period that saw the Bolts kill off a four minute Brenden Morrow high sticking penalty, the Lightning opened the scoring with the man advantage. Valtteri Filppula scored his 12th goal of the season and his second power play tally at 10:07 from Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos. With Montreal’s Greg Pateryn in the box for high sticking Nikita Kucherov, Filppula beat Carey Price five-hole as the puck deflected off the Canadiens’ Andrei Markov. For Filppila it was his first goal since February 8th, snapping a 15 game scoreless streak.
Playing 4-on-four, Steven Stamkos picked off a pass and blasted a slap shot top corner, short side past Carey Price for his 38th goal of the season at 15:58. Montreal’s Max Pacioretty simply passed the puck from the neutral zone directly back to Stamkos inside the blue line.
Shots for the period were 14-12 in favor of Tampa Bay.
At 2:45 of the second period, Victor Hedman did his best Bobby Orr impression as he went coast-to-coast and beat Price blocker side for his tenth of the season from Alex Killorn to make it 3-0. With the goal, the Lightning now have ten players with ten or more goals this season.
The Canadien’s connected on the power play as Tomas Plekanec scored his 21st at 11:10 with J.T. Brown in the box on a questionable roughing call. P.K. Subban and Markov were credited with the assists. It was the first power play goal that Montreal has scored against the Lightning this year.
The second period ended 3-1 Bolts. Shots were 11 apiece, but after the Brown penalty, the Canadiens outshot the Lightning 6-2.
The Canadiens started the third period with a goal at the 34 second mark by P.A. Parenteau from Plekanec. Parenteau’s seventh goal was a result of a Plekanec steal off a Ben Bishop misplay behind the Bolts’ net.
Most of the third period saw the Lightning hanging on, but Steven Stamkos scored his second goal of the game into an empty net with just 1:05 left to seal the win for the Lightning. Stamkos’ 39th was assisted by Vladislav Namestnikov and Jason Garrison.
Stamkos now has seven, three point games this season.
Shots for the game were tied at 34. The Lightning were 2-4 on the power play and 3-4 on the penalty kill.
Netminder Ben Bishop stopped 32 of the 34 shots he faced and earned his 34th win of the season. Bishop is now 9-1-2 in his career vs. Montreal
This was a great performance after a lackluster effort against Winnipeg on Saturday night.
The Bolts have defeated the Canadiens all four times they have played this season and have won six straight regular season meetings. In the four games this season, Tampa Bay has outscored Montreal 16-5.
Tampa Bay is tied with Montreal for first place in the Atlantic Division with 93 points, although the Canadiens have a game in hand. Before they play again on Friday, the Bolts will have a game in hand on the Montreal.
Cedric Paquette (upper body), Braydon Coburn (lower body, Ondrej Palat (lower body) and Nikita Nesterov (healthy) were the scratches.
The Lightning will host the Detroit Red Wings Friday night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
Follow me on Twitter @LightningShout and please “like” LightningShout on Facebook. You can email us at [email protected].
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
