The Tampa Bay Lightning cruised to a 6-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night to stop a four-game losing skid.
Tampa Bay got three goals in the first period from Brayden Point, Pontus Holmberg and Nikita Kucherov and then received more offense from defensemen Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Darren Raddysh later in the game to offset a Canadiens power-play goal in the second period.
Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson made 25 saves to pick up the win for the Lightning, who improve to 17-11-2 on the season.
Raddysh scored two goals to co-lead the team in scoring alongside Kucherov and Point, who each had a goal and one assist.
Scoring summary
First period
TBL 1, MTL 0
2:26 Brayden Point (4) - Jake Guentzel, Oliver Bjorkstrand
Tampa Bay earned an early lead when Brayden Point won a race to a bouncing puck in the offensive zone and beat the Canadiens goaltender with a top-shelf shot.
TBL 2, MTL 0
6:03 Pontus Holmberg (2) - Unassisted
Tampa Bay doubled its lead on a breakaway for Pontus Holmberg fresh out of the penalty box.
TBL 3, MTL 0
17:12 Nikita Kucherov (13) - Max Crozier
Tampa Bay’s leading scorer added to the lead with a one-timer from the bottom of the right faceoff circle.
Shots on goal: TBL 14, MTL 7
Second period
TBL 4, MTL 0
2:41 Charle-Edouard D’Astous (3) - Kucherov
Defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous scored in his home province to make it 4-0 Lightning, crashing the net to score on a pass from Kucherov.
TBL 4, MTL 1
19:06 Oliver Kapanen (6) - Nick Suzuki, Ivan Demidov - PP
Montreal got in on the scoring with a rebound power-play goal in the final minute of period two.
Shots on goal: MTL 15, TBL 4
Third period
TBL 5, MTL 1
1:22 Darren Raddysh (4) - Anthony Cirelli
Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh’s shot went off the crossbar and down across the goal line to score the 5-1 goal just past the opening minute of the third period.
TBL 6, MTL 1
8:41 Raddysh (5) - Point - PP
Raddysh’s second goal of the third period came on his shot from the top of the power play with Point acting as a netfront screen.
Total shots: TBL 26, MTL 26
