MONTREAL – Alex Galchenyuk and Max Pacioretty each scored twice to reach the 30-goal mark for the season as the Montreal Canadiens ended their NHL regular season with a 5-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
Tomas Plekanec also scored for Montreal (38-38-6), which missed the playoffs for the second time in nine years.
Jonathan Drouin, with his second in as many games since returning from a hiatus, and Ondrej Palat scored for the Lightning (46-31-5), who had already clinched the Atlantic Division title. They open the playoffs Wednesday at home against Detroit.
The Lightning, already missing Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman to injuries, may have lost another at 15:53 of the first period when centre Tyler Johnson was helped off the ice after crashing head-first into the boards.
Johnson was given a light shove by Greg Pateryn, lost his footing and pitched into the boards. He did not return due to what the team called an upper body injury. Pateryn got a major and a game misconduct for boarding.
Montreal outshot Tampa Bay 29-22.
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