Steven Stamkos had 2 goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 34 of 35 shots as the Montreal Canadiens fell 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday night.
The Canadiens got off to a quick start, as Max Domi scored just 58 seconds into the game. Domi now has at least 1 point in 7 of his last 8 games, getting 6 goals and 3 assists. Montreal also led 10-4 in shots after 8:34 of the 1st period, but the Lightning came on strong in the second half of the period and lead 2-1 in goals and 18-12 in shots after 20 minutes of play.
“The disappointing part was probably the last 10 minutes of the first period where we were playing on our heels and it seemed like shift after shift, we couldn’t get anything going,” said Habs’ forward Brendan Gallagher, who’s had a nice start to the season, but couldn’t find the back of the net on Saturday night.
Tampa scored 4 unanswered goals which included 2 in a span of 2:42, as they improved to 6-0-0 vs Eastern Conference teams this year and are now 6-0-2 against the Habs in their last 8 games vs them. The Lightning also kept an interesting stat alive. They are one of the few teams yet to lose 2 straight games this season, with the Canadiens being one of the other teams.
Stamkos got the first Lightning goal at 13:42 of the 1st period, assisted by Nikita Kucherov, which tied the game 1-1. J.T. Miller’s 4th goal of the season put Tampa up 2-1 at 16:24 of the opening frame. After a scoreless 2nd period, Stamkos beat Price again just 52 seconds into the final period. Yanni Gourde sealed the deal for the Bolts, making it 4-1 with just 4:03 left in the game.
“It’s a one-goal game up until that point so that next goal is obviously huge,” Stamkos said on his second goal. “I thought that sucked a little momentum out of them and to be honest gave us some. You know, the guys went out there the next shift, had a great shift in their end. So, I thought we did a good job of not sitting back tonight. We kept pressuring and that’s when we’re at our best.”
Montreal falls to 7-4-2 overall and 5-3-0 at home this season (6-3-1 in their last 10), while Tampa improves to 9-3-1 overall and 4-1-1 on the road (7-2-1 in their last 10).
Both teams failed to score on the power play. Montreal went 0/4 and the Bolts went 0/3. The Habs have now gone 5 straight games without a goal on the man-advantage (0-15).
Vasilevskiy got his 7th win of the season as he made 34 straight saves after allowing the goal to Domi on the first shot of the game. Montreal’s goaltender, Carey Price didn’t have as good as a night though, allowing 4 goals on 36 shots.
The Lightning had 32 hits to Montreal’s 25. Montreal is 2nd in the NHL with 369 hits so far this season. The Canadiens led the league in hits last season.
Stamkos, who had 2 goals, has now scored 20 times vs Price. Stamkos doubled his goal total for the season in this game. He now has 4 goals and 6 assists in 13 games this season. The 28-year-old Markham, ON native has scored 3 goals this past week, including the 350th of his career.
Domi, who scored the lone goal for the Canadiens, has had a nice start in his first season with the club. Domi started his career with the Arizona Coyotes and hasn’t really made his mark in the NHL yet, but is looking to do that this season. The 23-year-old has 7 goals and 6 assists in 13 games. His 7th goal this year was in game #13 of the season, but his 7th goal last year was not until his 72nd game of the campaign. Habs fans would love to see more of this new version of Domi.
The three stars of the game were Vasilevskiy, who saved all but one shot, Stamkos, and Anton Stralman, who had three assists.
“I thought we held our own tonight,” Price said. “That’s a good hockey club over there, for sure. We’ve got to take a lot of positives out of the game. We obviously would like to win, but at the same time we’ve got to keep positive and move forward.”
Up Next:
The Lightning travel to Ottawa where they will face the Senators in the second game of this back-to-back on Sunday night.
The Canadiens will be in New York for their own back-to-back, facing the Islanders on Monday and the Rangers on Tuesday.
Sources:
All quotes courtesy of here.
Stats courtesy of http://www.nhl.com/stats/
Nick's Sports World 