The battle for the top spot in the Eastern Conference was dominated by the Tampa Bay Lightning as they skated to a 4-2 win at the Bell Centre. A four goal second period was enough to beat the Canadiens, who had won six straight and nine out of their last ten.
The first period was controlled by the Lightning, but the Canadiens scored the only goal of the period. After holding the Canadiens without a shot for 13 minutes, Tampa Bay turned over the puck at their own blue line where Tomas Plekanec threw the puck to the net and Dale Weise redirected it past Ben Bishop for his fifth of the season. Sergei Gonchar was given the secondary assist.
Despite out-shooting Montreal 10-6, holding them without a shot for 13 minutes, having a shorthanded breakaway chance and having two power play opportunities, Tampa Bay trailed 1-0 after one period.
The Lightning controlled play for most of the second period. The Bolts tied the game at one at 3:17 as hometown boy Jonathan Drouin hit the crossbar and J.T. Brown found the rebound and put it past Price for his second of the season. Brian Boyle got the secondary assist. Brown had been a healthy scratch since December 27th.
With P.K. Subban in the box for slashing, the Triplets took over. Just 19 seconds into the power play Tyler Johnson scored on a beautiful slap pass from Nikita Kucherov. It was Johnson’s 16th goal of the season. Of course, Ondrej Palat was also credited with an assist on the go ahead goal.
This power play was an interesting one as coach Jon Cooper put Steven Stamkos with the Triplets. Stamkos was in front of the net and opened up space for Kucherov, Palat and Johnson to work their magic.
Brett Connolly put the Lightning up 3-1 with a wicked wrister that sailed past Carey Price at 18:16. Valtteri Filppula and Cedric Paquette had the assists.
A little over a minute later, the Triplets struck again on the power play. Johnson pushed the puck in on a scrambling rebound for his 17th of the season from Kucherov and Palat.
The second period ended 4-1 Lightning. Shots were 25-13 in favor of the Bolts at this point.
Over the last six games the Lightning have outscored their opponents 13-3 in the second period.
At 5:01 of the third period, Max Pacioretty brought the Canadiens within two on a goal Ben Bishop probably should have had. Brendan Gallagher and Gonchar had the assists.
The Bolts out-shot the Habs 36-22. Ben Bishop stopped 20 shots to earn his 20th win of the season.
For ten consecutive games the Canadiens had not allowed more than two goals…until tonight.
The Triplets were unstoppable on the Bolts’ four game road trip, earning 23 points.
Tyler Johnson has a league leading ten game road point streak going.
It looks like Tampa Bay has found a power play unit. The Triplets with Stamkos and Anton Stralman looked dangerous all night and were two-for-two.
Tampa Bay is 6-1 in their last seven games and leads the Eastern Conference with a 26-12-4 record and 56 points.
Defenseman Nikita Nesterov, forward Brenden Morrow and defenseman Radko Gudas (Knee surgery) were the scratches.
Tampa Bay will host the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night at Amalie Arena.
(Feature Photo/Getty Images)
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