TBL@MTL: Game Recap

MONTREAL -- The Canadiens were edged 3-2 by the Lightning on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.

TICKETS: Blackhawks @ Canadiens
The Habs were minus a bunch of regulars for their first matchup of the season with the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
The newest absentees included forwards Tyler Toffoli and Joel Armia, both of whom were sidelined due to injury.

Two players made their Habs debuts on Tuesday night.
Forward Laurent Dauphin played his first NHL game since January 2019 when he was still a member of the Arizona Coyotes.

Defenseman Kale Clague, who was claimed off waivers over the weekend from Los Angeles, donned the CH for the first time as well.

The Lightning opened the scoring at the 10:31 mark of the first period when forward Pat Maroon capitalized on a turnover by Clague behind the net that led to an easy goal on goaltender Jake Allen.
Maroon's sixth goal of the season was unassisted.
That's the way things stood after 20 minutes.
The Canadiens tied things up just 4:20 into the second period when Nick Suzuki batted a puck past goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy for his sixth goal of the year.
Suzuki was the beneficiary of a quick move by defenseman David Savard off the rush that led to the scoring opportunity.

Both Savard and Jonathan Drouin collected assists on the sequence.
It was Suzuki's second goal in as many games.
The Habs pulled ahead only 2:48 later when Mike Hoffman's shot from the top of the circle deflected off Drouin and beat Vasilevskiy.

It was Drouin's fourth goal of the year.
Suzuki also collected an assist to reach the 100-point plateau for his NHL career.
Montreal led 2-1 after 40 minutes.
The Lightning ultimately secured the victory with some late-game heroics.
After Corey Perry scored the equalizer with 2:09 left in regulation, Ondrej Palat netted the game-winner with 38 seconds to go.
Allen finished the contest with 24 saves on 27 shots.
The Canadiens are back in action on Thursday night when they host the Chicago Blackhawks at the Bell Centre.