TAMPA, Fla. – Max Pacioretty won it in the third round of a shootout and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Monday night to end a six-game losing streak.
Brian Flynn also scored in the shootout for Montreal. Valtteri Filppula had a shootout score for Tamp Bay.
The Canadiens got goals from Tomas Plekanec, Alex Galchenyuk and Dale Weise.
Nikita Kucherov, Jason Garrison and Ryan Callahan scored for the Lightning, who are 2-1-1 on a six-game homestand. Tampa Bay centres Tyler Johnson and Brian Boyle both returned after being out with upper-body injuries.
Mike Condon made 36 saves through overtime for Montreal, while Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop stopped 31 shots.
Montreal is 4-10-1 since goalie Carey Price was sidelined by a lower-body injury in late November. The Canadiens are also without right wing Brendan Gallagher, who missed his 16th straight game due to broken fingers.
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It was the first meeting between the teams since the Eastern Conference champion Lightning beat Montreal in the second round of last season’s playoffs. Tampa Bay also swept the five-game regular-season series in 2014-15.
After Garrison scored at 13:21 of the third, Callahan gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead on his first goal in 23 games 21 seconds later.
Weise got the Canadiens even at 3 at 14:14.
Galchenyuk put Montreal up 2-1 at 9:57 of the second.
Plekanec opened the scoring to tie Hector “Toe” Blake for 19th place on the Montreal career points list with 527 at 15:58 of the first.
Tampa Bay tied it at 1 during a power play 5:40 into the second when Kucherov sent the puck into the crease from along the goal line and it went in the net off Condon.
NOTES: Tampa Bay owner Jeff Vinik remains confident a deal with C Steven Stamkos, who can be a free agent after the season, can be worked out but said personnel decisions are in the hands of general manager Steve Yzerman. … The Canadiens obtained G Ben Scrivens from Edmonton for F Zack Kassian. … Montreal reassigned G Dustin Tokarski to St. John’s of the AHL. … Tampa Bay reassigned LW Mike Angelidis and RW Mike Blunden to Syracuse of the AHL. … Kucherov has a six-game point streak.
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