Hagel's 3 points help Lightning defeat Canadiens for 5th win in row

MONTREAL -- Brandon Hagel had his second straight three-point game, and the Tampa Bay Lightning extended their winning streak to five with a 5-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Steven Stamkos had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for Tampa Bay (20-9-1). Stamkos needs three goals for 500 in the NHL.
"It was a weird game, lots of special teams, but we capitalized and it's nice to collect some points," Stamkos said.
Hagel had two goals and an assist to match his NHL high for points for a second straight game. It was his fifth three-point game in the NHL.
"His engine is going and he never gives up on pucks," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "He's always around the net, just as both those goals he scored. It was kind of [Ondrej] Palat's spot for a lot of years, and Hagel's fit seamlessly in there and it's been really good for us."

Nick Suzuki scored, and Jake Allen made 22 saves for Montreal (14-15-2), which has lost three straight and is 2-5-1 in its past eight games.
"It's kind of an apprenticeship for us, a good lesson for us to see what we're trying to become," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. "They battle hard on the ice, they're tiresome with their sticks, and that's all connected. That takes time."

Hagel made it 1-0 when he scored on Tampa Bay's first shot at 2:57 of the first period. Hagel shot between Allen's pads on a breakaway after Ian Cole's long pass found him behind the Montreal defense.
Nicholas Paul increased the lead to 2-0 at 11:39 when he put away a rebound in the crease.
Anthony Cirelli put the Lightning up 3-0 with a power-play goal at 9:26 of the second period. It was Cirelli's first goal in seven games this season.
Hagel pushed it to 4-0 with his second of the game on a power play at 17:47 when he tipped Victor Hedman's point shot for his fourth goal in two games.
Suzuki scored 16 seconds into the third period to cut it to 4-1.
Nikita Kucherov scored at 18:01 with an assist from Hagel for the 5-1 final.
Hagel has six points in his past two games, and nine points (five goals, four assists) during a five-game point streak that matches his longest in the NHL set with the Chicago Blackhawks from March 5-16 last season.
"I don't know, the puck's just going in the back of the net finally," Hagel said. "No, I think our line's been great together. We're gelling well together. The power play there, the puck goes to the net and off my stick, and (Ian Cole) makes a good pass on the first one. And obviously you give the puck to 'Kuch' and it's going to go in the back of the net."

Montreal did not score a goal in the two periods for a fifth straight game.
"I feel like the last couple of games here at home we've had a bunch of chances early, we just haven't been able to score," Suzuki said. "Getting the first one's huge for momentum and winning games, and we haven't been able to do that lately."
The Lightning went 2-for-6 on the power play; the Canadiens were 0-for-3.
"I feel like we talk about it before every single game, and as of late we've been taking way too many penalties and that's got to stop," Suzuki said. "We're wasting guys' energy killing penalties and it's hard to kind of keep momentum like that."

Montreal played its final home game until Jan. 5. It begins a three-game trip before the Christmas break at the Arizona Coyotes on Monday, the first of seven straight road games.
"We're going to try to find our discipline on the road," St. Louis said.
NOTES: Kucherov extended his point streak to seven games (two goals, 10 assists). He leads the NHL with 35 assists. ... Vasilevskiy got his 10th straight regular-season win against Montreal. He is the first NHL goalie since 1943-44 to win 10 or more consecutive regular season games against the Canadiens; Alec Connell of the Ottawa Senators won 12 straight against Montreal from Feb. 28, 1925 to Feb. 22, 1927, and Turk Broda of the Toronto Maple Leafs won 12 in a row against the Canadiens from Dec. 9, 1939 to Jan. 23, 1941. … Montreal has not scored in the first or second period since Dec. 6, when forward Rem Pitlick scored at 18:40 of the second in a 4-2 win at the Seattle Kraken.