The Tampa Bay Lightning came back from a two-goal deficit with four straight goals to defeat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3, on New Year’s Eve. Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point both finished with a goal and an assist while Austin Watson and Calvin de Haan added goals. For de Haan, it was his first as a member of the Lightning. Victor Hedman added two assists and Steven Stamkos, playing in his franchise-record 1038th game had an assist. Jonas Johansson stopped 27 of 30 shots for his first win since November 30th.
The first period was scoreless as both teams struggled to maintain a sense of flow. It wasn’t surprising considering both had played the night before. Four minutes into the middle frame Cole Caufield opened the scoring for the visitors as he forced a turnover by Stamkos in front of the Lightning net and beat Johansson with a quick wrister.
Cole Caufield (unassisted) 1-0 Canadiens
The Habs doubled their lead eight minutes later with one of the weirder sequences ever to take place on ice. Darren Raddysh drilled a slapshot on net that Sam Montembeault stopped easily. He holds it for a beat or two before realizing the referee is not going to blow the whistle as their were no Lightning players in the vicinity. Unfortunately, most of the players on the ice, including Johansson, assumed the whistle had been blown and were skating around aimlessly. Jonathan Kovacevic alertly fired the puck into the vacated Lightning net for the goal.
Jonathan Kovacevic (Sam Montembeault) 2-0 Canadiens
“That one is for sure a first. That one was strange.” said Coach Cooper after the game. He also credited the crowd, who was fired up after the goal, for bringing extra energy to the bench. A solid shift by the Motte line also sparked the team, who had been quite lethargic up to that point.
Brayden Point started the offense rolling after Nick Paul sprung him with a nifty little pass. All alone on the goaltender Point buried the shot to make it 2-1.
Brayden Point (Nick Paul, Brandon Hagel) 2-1 Canadiens
Three minutes later, the hockey gods returned the whacky bounce favor for the Lightning. Austin Watson, playing in his 500th career game, threw a puck towards the net from the boards that Montembault made a mess of, and deflected it into his own net.
Austin Watson (Victor Hedman, Nick Perbix) 2-2
With the score level heading into the third period the Lightning needed a good start to pull the victory out. Leave it to Nikita Kucherov to provide the spark. His little backhand pass from the slot to Calvin de Haan set up the defenseman to wire his shot past Montembeault.
Calvin de Haan (Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos) 3-2 Lightning
With just over five minutes to play, Kucherov would add an important insurance goal and, for once, be on the receiving end of a slick pass instead of dishing them off. After dropping a pass off in the offensive zone, Kucherov circled around the back of the net and was in the perfect position to receive a precision pass from Hedman.
Nikita Kucherov (Victor Hedman, Anthony Cirelli) 4-2 Lightning
That goal proved to be even more important as the Habs got one back with their net empty and just over two minutes to play. Nick Suzuki sniped one past Johansson from an almost impossible angle after a blocked shot caromed over to him at the goal line.
Nick Suzuki (Juraj Slafkovsky, Michael Matheson) 4-3 Lightning
The Bolts held off a few final attempts by the Canadiens and secured the victory, ending an important six-game stretch over the holidays with a 4-2 record. It wasn’t all sunshine and ice cream cones, though. The Bolts finished the game with just four defensemen as Erik Cernak and Haydn Fleury both left the game in the second period with injuries. After the game, Coach Cooper indicated that he was a little more concerned with Fleury’s injury,
“Not so much on Erik right now but I think Fleurs might be a little bit longer. It was a tough end to the year on the injury front”.
The Bolts kick off 2024 with a three-game road trip in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
