It took the Lightning just over two minutes to turn a game upside-down Tuesday night in Montreal.
Down a goal with 2:40 to go, Tampa Bay pulled Andrei Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker. Corey Perry scored 31 seconds later, and just when it appeared the game was heading to overtime Ondrej Palat scored with 38 seconds left to give the Lightning a 3-2 win.
The victory was the fourth straight for Tampa Bay, which is on a five-game points streak.
The Lightning jumped out to a 1-0, first-period lead on Pat Maroon’s unassisted goal (his sixth of the year). Maroon grabbed the puck when Canadiens defenseman Kyle Clague fanned on a clearing attempt from behind the Montreal net,spun and beat goaltender Jake Allen low on the stick side.
But a pair of goals Montreal goals in the second period from Nick Suzuki and Mike Hoffman squashed any kind of momentum the Lightning (15-6-4) had built.
Part of Tampa Bay’s struggles stemmed from a 17-minute penalty against defenseman Zach Bogosian, who fought Montreal’s Alexander Romanov after Romanov hip-checked Anthony Cirelli in the neutral zone. Bogosian was assessed three penalties (a 10-minute misconduct, 5-minute fighting major and 2-minute instigator minor).
With Bogosian unavailable for nearly an entire period, the rest of the game was split among the remaining five defensemen. Bogosian did not return until 5:49 remained in regulation.
Vasilevskiy finished with 21 saves on 23 shots for his third straight win. Allen stopped 24 of 27 shots.
