Burns: 3 Things from a comeback win over Montreal

Down 3-1 midway through the third period to Montreal and one of the best goalies in the NHL in Carey Price, the Tampa Bay Lightning were in serious danger of dropping their second-straight game and falling further in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
But facing near-insurmountable odds, the Lightning put together one of their best stretches of hockey this season, rallying from two goals down over the final 10 minutes of regulation to force overtime. In the extra session, Tyler Johnson netted his second goal of the night, capping one of the most thrilling victories for the Lightning maybe all season with the 4-3 result and potentially sparking the Bolts as they head into the post-Christmas portion of the schedule.

Tampa Bay overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period for the first time this season.
How'd they do it? We'll take a closer look in 3 Things from a galvanizing victory over Atlantic Division-leading Montreal.
Video: MTL@TBL: Johnson finishes slick passing play in 1st1. TRIPLETS…ACTIVATE
Guess who's back?
Back again
Triplets back
Tell a friend
With Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat returning from injury, the Lightning reunited the Triplets against Montreal, and the trio didn't disappoint, conjuring images of their intuitive play from two seasons ago.
The Lightning's first goal was vintage Triplets, each member instinctively finding their linemate with a gorgeous tic-tac-toe passing sequence that was capped by Tyler Johnson's one-timer on the back post.
"To be honest, that was as good as I've seen them play this year," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said of the Triplets. "You need the guys that have come through for you before in the past to come through for you. When you're (as) short as our lineup is up front, they came through for us, and they've done it time and time again. Hopefully this just jump starts them."
Johnson, Kucherov and Palat all finished with two points on the night. Johnson and Palat were plus-three; Kucherov plus-two.
"I thought they were the best line on the ice," Cooper said.

2. NEVER SAY QUIT
Despite staring at a two-goal deficit with time running out, the Lightning never wavered in their approach to the game. The Bolts had played well over the first two periods and created more quality scoring chances, the Canadiens just did a better job capitalizing on theirs.
Montreal spent much of the first 10 minutes of the third period just chipping pucks out of their own end and keeping the Lightning away from goal. The strategy worked for a while, but the Bolts resiliency persevered in the end.
"I like the way we played and the way we fought through," said Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, who scored the Bolts' second goal at 11:14 of the third period. "We didn't give up, even down two goals, and they were playing well. Playing strong defensively, we didn't get too many grade A's, but I think in the third, we created a lot of opportunities and you know our power play came through on a big occasion. So we will carry this into tomorrow."
Buoyed by Hedman's tally to get within a goal, the Lightning kept pressing for the equalizer and got a break when Shea Weber was whistled for tripping at 15:19 of the final period. The Bolts hadn't done much on the power play earlier in the game, but when they needed the special teams unit to come through in the clutch, it delivered, Ondrej Palat netting his fifth goal of the season to level the score 3-3.
Montreal got a late power play and an opportunity to retake the lead, but the Bolts' penalty kill did its best work of the night - even nearly scoring shorthanded a couple of times - to force overtime.
"We get a power play chance where we weren't necessarily executing as best that we could," Bolts forward Brian Boyle said. "Obviously, it wasn't the prettiest of power plays, but it ended up getting the job done. It goes to show that hard work, when we're skating, working, and hounding pucks, we're going to get results."

3. TURN THE PAGE
Tampa Bay just experienced one of its most uplifting victories of the season in rallying to beat the Canadiens.
The challenge for the Lightning now is to enjoy the win for a few hours and then forget about it because they've got another contest in less than 24 hours against Toronto.
A loss to the Maple Leafs on Thursday will undo all of the positive vibes the Bolts earned from their hard-fought, come-from-behind win on Wednesday.
"It's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, so by the time 7:30 starts tomorrow, it's not going to matter too much," Cooper said. "But we're two points farther ahead than we were a couple hours ago, and that's what you need to do. When you have a bad loss, you've got to turn the page. When you have a good win like we did tonight, you want to hold on to that feeling. But you have to understand the way we progressed in this game, we have to carry that into tomorrow, and we can't just hang our hat on what happened tonight."
The Lightning began a season-long five-game home stand at AMALIE Arena on Wednesday.
Let's hope the positive start to the much-needed stretch of games at home kickstarts a string of wins for the Bolts.