Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots, many in spectacular fashion, as the Lightning ended the Canadian portion of their six-game road trip with a 3-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday night.
Montreal dominated play throughout most of the game, especially in the third period, where Vasilevskiy held his own, and then some. Unofficially, the Lightning blocked 25 shots, as the ice was tilted Montreal's way most of the night.
The three Lightning goals came in a span of 2:08 that straddled the first and second periods. On a delayed penalty toward the end of the first period, Braydon Coburn took a pass from Steven Stamkos in the slot and blistered a shot over the glove-side shoulder of Canadiens' goaltender Carey Price. Nikita Kucherov picked up the secondary assist on Coburn's first goal of the season.
Tampa Bay then followed with a pair of goals to start the second. After Brett Kulak went off the ice for holding at :31, Stamkos, who was set up in his wheelhouse inside the face-off circle, fired a slapshot over Price's stick-side shoulder off a cross-ice pass from Victor Hedman for his fourth goal of the season at 1:04.
Less than a minute later, Tyler Johnson scored his second goal of the season, giving the lightning their final goal of the game. The play started innocently enough behind Vasilevskiy, but finished quickly as Hedman picked up a loose puck, and fired a long pass to Ondrej Palat, who was rushing down the left side of the ice. Palat fired a quick cross-ice pass to Johnson, who wristed a shot from the slot that looked as if it deflected off Montreal defenseman Victor Mete's leg and over Price's left shoulder.
The Lightning's penalty kill struggled early, as Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry opened the scoring at 15:36 with a power play goal that resembled Stamkos' goal. Max Domi stole a clearing attempt by Alex Killorn and fed Petry, who was set up inside the face-off circle and blasted a slap shot over Vasilevskiy's glove.
But the Lightning killed the next four Montreal power-play chances, with a lot of help from their Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender.
The Lightning, now 3-2-1 and fourth in the Atlantic Division, will face the division-rival Boston Bruins on Thursday. Coverage begins on our sister station Newsradio 970 at 6:30 p.m. Puck drops at 7.