Lightning rally, defeat Canadiens in shootout

TAMPA -- Tyler Motte tied it with a short-handed goal midway through the third period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied for a 4-3 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

Motte tied it 3-3 at 10:18, beating Montreal goalie Cayden Primeau five-hole on a breakaway after jumping in front of a pass from Nick Suzuki.

"You can't dig holes in this league and escape it every time, but good for us to stick with it and find a way," Motte said. "Two points is two points this time of year. This time of the year everyone's looking at the standings, and the [Trade] Deadline is coming up, too. There's no secret there, but this is the time where teams really figure out who they are, and you've got to find a way to win."

Victor Hedman scored in the sixth round of the shootout to win it.

"I never played against that goalie before," Hedman said. "That's probably a good thing. He probably didn't have the pre-scout on me. I just tried to take a little slow and see what's open."

Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli scored for the Lightning (33-24-6), who had lost two in a row and five of their past seven. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves.

"We'll come away pleased with the result, but we can't come out the way we did and spot an NHL team two goals and give yourselves two periods to come back," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "That's not a recipe for success."

Joel Armia and Jake Evans scored for the Canadiens (23-28-10), who have lost two in a row and seven of their past eight. Primeau made 27 saves.

"It's a tough one to swallow after being up a couple of goals," Primeau said. "But to come into their building on a Saturday night and take them to a shootout is a good test for us. You can take away some things, but it was a good game from us."

Armia gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 1:27 of the first period when he finished off a 2-on-1 rush with a wrist shot from the slot.

"We've been very competitive here for a while, and it's everybody," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. "You can't have any passengers. [Armia] has been playing great. It's nice for him to get rewarded, but there's a lot of other things on the ice that he does that don't end up on the score sheet."

Evans extended it to 2-0 at 14:34 when he tipped the puck past Vasilevskiy from the low slot off a pass by Brendan Gallagher.

Point cut it to 2-1 at 7:44 of the second period off a pass from Steven Stamkos. He extended his point streak to nine games (seven goals, four assists).

"They came out hot and got a 2-0 lead, but we were a better team in the second and we were about to battle back," Hedman said. "We didn't have the lead, but two points is the most important thing in a game like this. We'll take them any way we can this time of year."

Cirelli tied it 2-2 at 15:49 with a shot from the bottom of the right circle off a backdoor pass from Brandon Hagel.

Josh Anderson gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead at 6:23 with a redirection off an initial shot from the point by Cole Caufield.

"I thought we took it to them in the first; we played how we wanted to,” Caufield said. "We know they're going to get their chances and their looks. Our overall game is pretty good right now and we've just got to do a better job of finishing it off in the third."

NOTES: Point’s goal was his 250th in the NHL. ...Montreal has a League-high 35 games decided by one goal (15-11-9). ... Hagel’s assist gave him his second consecutive 60-point season (22 goals, 38 assists). ... Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov had the secondary assist on Point's goal and has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) during a six-point point streak.