Stamkos scores twice, powers Lightning past Canadiens

MONTREAL --Steven Stamkos scored two goals to help the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves for his seventh win in 10 starts, J.T. Miller and Yanni Gourde scored, and Anton Stralman had three assists for Tampa Bay (9-3-1), which leads the Eastern Conference with 19 points.
"We knew what to expect coming in," Stamkos said. "They were going to come out hard and they did, that's why we have arguably the best goalie in the world on our team to give us a chance sometimes to catch our breath. And then after that I thought we did a good job of playing the right way."
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Canadiens highlights]
Max Domi scored his seventh goal in eight games for Montreal (7-4-2), and Carey Price made 32 saves.
"I thought we held our own tonight," Price said. "That's a good hockey club over there, for sure. We've got to take a lot of positives out of the game. We obviously would like to win, but at the same time we've got to keep positive and move forward."

The Lightning are 6-0-0 against the East, including 3-0-0 against Atlantic Division teams.
"It's a good team over there," Stamkos said. "They're fast, they're tenacious, so I thought we had a really good road game."
Stamkos tied it at 1-1 with his third goal of the season, a one-timer from the left side on a pass from Nikita Kucherov at 13:42 of the first period.
Miller made it 2-1 at 16:24 of the second. He scored his fourth of the season on a wrist shot from the slot after Stralman knocked down Montreal forward Charles Hudon's flip pass inside the blue line.
Stamkos scored his second goal of the game 52 seconds into the third period when he took a pass from Kucherov and beat Price with a wrist shot to the top right corner to make it 3-1.
"It's a one-goal game up until that point so that next goal is obviously huge," Stamkos said. "I thought that sucked a little momentum out of them and to be honest gave us some. You know, the guys went out there the next shift, had a great shift in their end. So I thought we did a great job of not sitting back tonight. We kept pressuring and that's when we're at our best."

Gourde, who signed a six-year, $31 million contract Friday, made it 4-1 with his fifth goal at 15:57.
"The disappointing part was probably the last 10 minutes of the first period where we were playing on our heels and it seemed like shift after shift we couldn't get anything going," Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said.
Domi gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead when he scored 58 seconds into the first period. After cutting off Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev's clearing attempt, he cut to the slot and scored on a wrist shot.
"It was a tough start for us," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We must have thought it was a 7:30 start instead of a 7 o'clock."

They said it

"You watch them play that first eight minutes and they'll play with any team in the League. I mean, they had us on our heels. And just their tenacity, their speed, they're not afraid to go to the inside. … They're going to be a team that you've got to watch." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper
"[Vasilevskiy is] a big athletic goaltender and he competes hard. They do a good job of boxing out and allowing him to see the puck, and if you want to score on a guy like that you've got to get in front and make great shots. And I thought he played very well tonight."-- Canadiens goalie Carey Price

Need to know

It is the first time the Lightning have won their first six games against conference opponents. … It was the third time Domi has scored in the first two minutes of a game this season. He has scored in consecutive games three times in the past eight games. … Canadiens forward Phillip Danault played his 200th NHL game.

What's next

Lightning:At the Ottawa Senators on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVAS, SUN, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: At the New York Islanders on Monday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+ 2, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)