The Backcheck: Bolts keep things rolling in Montreal

Skating in the second half of a back-to-back following a 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning kept things rolling with a 7-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens Thursday night at Bell Centre.

The Bolts surrendered the first goal of the game and fell into a 1-0 hole just 2:37 into the first period when Brendan Gallagher fired a shot on goal that was stopped by Matt Tomkins, but Joel Armia was right there to bat the rebound out of midair and into the back of the net for his 15^th goal of the season.

But Tampa Bay continued to push forward and got a spark after Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli were both sent to the penalty box following a scrum in front of the Montreal net. After the penalties were all sorted out, Alex Newhook was assessed two minutes for roughing while Jayden Struble received four minutes for roughing, sending the Lightning to the power play.

With 49 seconds remaining in the man advantage, Nikita Kucherov sent a pass to the front of the net for Brayden Point, who had his shot stopped by Cayden Primeau before Nick Paul jumped on the rebound in front and buried his 21^st goal of the campaign to make it a 1-1 game with 10:15 remaining in the opening frame.

Roughly six and a half minutes later, the Bolts turned defense into offense to grab the 2-1 lead with Mikey Eyssimont netting his 11^th goal of the year.

Following a great effort on the backcheck from Tyler Motte that broke up a quality scoring chance for Gallagher, Matt Dumba sent a pass up the boards before Motte advanced the puck through the neutral zone to Eyssimont.

Gaining possession near the Montreal blue line, Eyssimont used his speed to wheel around Jayden Struble and go hard to the net before beating Primeau with the final goal of the first period.

Armia netted his second goal of the contest 4:42 into the second period when he took a pass from Alex Newhook and beat Tomkins with a shot to the far post to even the score at 2-2.

But Tampa Bay quickly responded once again with Stamkos scoring for the fourth-straight game to make it a 3-2 game just 3:16 after Armia’s game-tying goal. The Lightning wouldn’t surrender the lead for the remainder of the contest.

Taking the puck at the left point, Calvin de Haan sent a pass all the way across the offensive zone to Cirelli, who quickly moved the puck back across the zone to Stamkos, who was waiting near the bottom of the left circle to hammer a one-timer past Primeau for his 33^rd goal of the season.

Only 1:14 after Stamkos scored the go-ahead goal, Paul netted his second goal of the night to push the Bolts lead to 4-2. With Eyssimont pressuring the Canadiens on the forecheck, Rafael Harvey-Pinard attempted to move the puck up ice, but the pass went off the skate of Eyssimont and right onto the tape of Paul, who quickly turned and wired a shot from the top of the circles into the top right corner for his third goal over the last two games.

The Lightning kept the pressure on and grabbed another goal off the stick of Brandon Hagel with 6:42 remaining in the middle frame.

Just as a Tampa Bay power play expired, Darren Raddysh moved the puck from the point to the top of the left circle, where Hagel gained possession and ripped a slap shot that went off the blocker of Primeau and over the goal line with Anthony Duclair providing traffic at the top of the crease.

Now leading 5-2, the Bolts went back to the power play and extended that lead to 6-2 with Kucherov scoring his 43^rd goal of the campaign.

After Paul and Stamkos battled three Canadiens along the boards in the offensive zone, Stamkos impressively fished the puck out and sent a backhand pass to Point, who walked into the slot and set up Kucherov for a one-timer that gave the Lightning the 6-2 lead heading into the third period.

Following back-to-back goals from Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield that got Montreal back within two, Kucherov stole the puck off the stick of Mike Matheson and sent a pass to Stamkos, who found the back of the empty net and capped off the 7-4 win with 53.6 seconds remaining in regulation.

Tomkins finished the night with 27 saves on 31 shots against for his second career NHL win, both of which have come at Bell Centre in Montreal.

Cirelli and Hagel both left the game with injuries and were unable to return. Jon Cooper gave an update postgame that can be found in the quotes below.

Bolts by the Numbers

• Nikita Kucherov scored one goal and added two helpers for his 21^st three-point game of the season and second in as many nights to extend his point streak to five games (2-8—10). Kucherov’s career season has him up to 133 points on the year (43-90—133), the most among all NHL skaters. With 37 multi-point games this season, Kucherov is one multi-point effort shy of tying his franchise record for a single season set in 2018-19 (38). Kucherov and Connor McDavid are the first two players to record 90 assists in the same season since Mario Lemieux (92) and Ron Francis (92) accomplished the feat during the 1995-96 season.
• Steven Stamkos scored two goals and extended his goal streak to four games (5-0—5), matching his longest goal streak of the season set November 18-24 (4-3—7). Stamkos has seven goals over his last seven games (7-0—7) and 15 points over the Lightning’s last 12 road games. Up to 71 points this season (34-37—71), Stamkos has now recorded nine career 70-point campaigns.
• Nick Paul netted two goals for his third multi-goal game and 10^th multi-point game of the year. Paul (22-20—42) has set new career-highs in goals assists and points this season and has scored three goals over his last two games (3-0—3).
• Mikey Eyssimont scored his 11^th goal of the season and added one assist for his second multi-point effort of the season. Eyssimont has recorded three points over his last five contests (1-2—3).
• Brayden Point picked up two assists for his 22^nd multi-point game of the year, pushing his season point total to 85 (43-42—85).
• Brandon Hagel netted the game-winning goal and extended his point streak to four games (1-5—6). Hagel’s 70 points this year are the most he’s recorded in a single season in his career (24-46—70).
• Anthony Cirelli recorded two assists and has points in four of his last six games (4-3—7). Cirelli has now logged 43 points this season (19-24—43).

Bolts Quotes

• Jon Cooper on if he had an update on Anthony Cirelli: “Not yet. He got dinged up and we're getting at a point now that it's a lot of precaution stuff here. We didn't want to tempt anything, so we kept him out.”
• Cooper on Brandon Hagel’s status: “Same (as Cirelli).”
• Cooper: “We got two points. We're inching our way closer to a playoff spot, so I'm pretty damn happy about that to be honest.”
• Cooper: “If you can't win on the road, you don't win in the playoffs. That's it, bottom line. For us to get in, you have to be able to win in another team's building. I think our game's matured from the back end all the way out. At the trade deadline, we added some depth that has really helped us. But like I said, special teams has been great and I think that's something that you need, especially on the road.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Nikita Kucherov
2. Nick Paul
3. Steven Stamkos

Lightning Look Ahead

• Saturday, April 6 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, 1 p.m. ET, PPG Paints Arena
• Tuesday, April 9 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
• Thursday, April 11 vs. Ottawa Senators, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets