Canadiens Lineup

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Nick Suzuki

Nick Cousins – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Jordan Weal

Ryan Poehling – Nate Thompson – Riley Barber

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Victor Mete – Cale Fleury

Carey Price – Charlie Lindgren

Christian Folin, Lukas Vejdemo, Mike Reilly

Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin, Matthew Peca, Joel Armia

Game Report

The Canadiens rollercoaster season made an appearance tonight, not only within the game, but within a period.

The Habs dominated from the drop of the puck scoring twice and outshooting the Bolts 18-0 by the ten minute mark in the first period. As we witnessed earlier in the season, Montreal could not muster the killer instinct to get a third goal.

Instead, Tampa Bay flipped a switch and outshot the Canadiens 10-2 for the rest of the period. And then Alex Killorn scored a pivotal goal in the last minute of the frame buoying the hopes of the Lightning. 

With renewed confidence, Steven Stamkos tied the game just 94 seconds into the second period. Tampa scored twice more in the period as the Habs were reeling. 

After a Claude Julien timeout, Montreal got one goal back but the game did not feel close. By that point, the Lightning were controlling the neutral zone and the Canadiens were giving up multiple odd-man rushes. Error after error by the likes of Max Domi, Brett Kulak and Jeff Petry ensured that the potent Bolts had plenty of dangerous scoring opportunities.

The Canadiens are now five points out of a wild card spot but still within reach of third place in the Atlantic division currently occupied by the Florida Panthers. The two teams will meet in Sunrise on Sunday night.

Plus / Minus

▲  Brendan Gallagher

▼  Max Domi, Nick Suzuki, Brett Kulak, Jeff Petry, Riley Barber