Gage Goncalves and Brayden Point tallied in the shootout as the Tampa Bay Lightning won their fourth straight contest by edging the visiting Montreal Canadiens 5-4 on Sunday.
After Tampa Bay squandered a 4-1 lead in the third period, the pair beat Florida-born goaltender Jacob Fowler (18 saves) as the club won the shootout 2-0 on the second night of a back-to-back set.
Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson (32 saves) stopped Ivan Demidov and Cole Caufield for the win.
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov scored two goals, and Nick Paul and Pontus Holmberg tallied. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Goncalves posted two assists each. Defenseman Maxim Groshev had an assist in his NHL debut.
Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovsky had two goals and an assist, and Demidov and Noah Dobson each scored and added a helper. The Habs slipped to 3-0-2 in their past five matches.
With the Lightning having won their fight-filled Florida feud over the Panthers, 4-2, late Saturday night in Sunrise, the Habs were waiting up in Tampa and brought more energy in the late afternoon start as the clubs met for the second time.
The home side spent most of its time defending in its end and battling Montreal’s forecheck, but tensions increased when the Canadiens’ Arber Xhekaj hammered Scott Sabourin, sending the Tampa Bay winger face-first to the ice with a straight right hand.
Sabourin needed assistance to the dressing room and did not return, while his teammates left the ice outplayed and down 11-3 in shots for the first period.
At 2:28 of the second, Kucherov scored on a breakaway by beating Fowler, a native of Melbourne, Fla., who made history recently as the first Sunshine State-born netminder in the NHL.
Kucherov added a second nearly 10 minutes later after a Montreal rush ended with the puck hitting the linesman and went back toward the Lightning offensive end. Paul made it 3-0 on a rebound at 14:49.
Demidov scored 66 seconds into the third, but Holmberg tipped in a tally 34 seconds later to restore the three-goal lead.
Slafkovsky wristed in a marker from the high slot at 9:16 before Dobson fired one home to cut it to 4-3.
The Habs played the final 85 seconds with Fowler on the bench, and Slafkovsky one-timed the tying goal with 4 seconds left to force overtime.
–Field Level Media
