Lightning score 4 in 1st period, defeat Canadiens

MONTREAL -- The Tampa Bay Lightning scored four goals in the first period, and Matt Tomkins made 23 saves for his first NHL win in a 5-3 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Nicholas Paul scored two goals, Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist, and Brandon Hagel, Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman each had two assists for Tampa Bay (6-3-4), which rebounded after surrendering a 4-1 first period lead in a 6-5 overtime loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday.

“I think there was a little determination to our game, there was desperation to our game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “The guys, we were in our meal room today and I think from breakfast to lunch we must have watched the highlights of the game on the big screen 30 times. So it was etched in the boys’ heads what happened last night. We didn’t need to show any of it.”

Tomkins was making his third NHL start. A seventh-round pick (No. 199) by the Chicago Blackhawks at the 2012 NHL Draft, the 29-year-old played the previous two seasons in Sweden.

“To go up 4-0 pretty early on, maybe your mind starts to race a little bit,” Tomkins said. “So, I certainly had a lot of thoughts going through my head, but I just tried to stay calm and composed and do my job. And obviously we knew they were going to push, at home, and trying to get the crowd into it, so I just tried to fend them off as long as we could.

“So, obviously we had enough to get the win, which is great.”

Nick Suzuki and Michael Pezzetta scored 34 seconds apart in the third period for Montreal (5-5-2), which has lost four straight games (0-3-1).

“We’re a bit of a fragile team right now,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We’ve lost a bit of confidence, so that was pretty much the first period. I felt we got back in the game, that nobody disappeared after the first, because it’s easy when it’s going well. In life you’re judged when things aren’t going well, not when they’re going well. I liked that not one of our players tried to hide and we fought right to the end.”

Jake Allen allowed four goals on nine shots before he was pulled 13:50 into the game. Sam Montembeault replaced Allen and made 22 saves in the final 46:10.

“I think there was still a lot of hockey after the first period,” Montreal forward Tanner Pearson said. “You look at their game last night, same thing, kind of, right? So, you know it can happen, I think we’ve scored four goals in two periods before so it’s just a matter of sticking with it.”

Kucherov gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead when he scored 22 seconds into the game. He one-timed Hagel’s pass to score on a wrist shot past Allen’s glove from the right face-off circle.

Paul made it 2-0 at 7:15 when he put a rebound into an open right side of the net.

Alex Barré-Boulet pushed it to 3-0 on a power play at 9:09 with a shot from the right side that deflected in off Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson’s leg.

Michael Eyssimont put the Lightning up 4-0 at 13:50 when he banked a shot from a sharp angle inside the left post off Allen’s upper back.

Suzuki's power-play goal at 6:50 of the third period cut it to 4-1.

Pezzetta drew the Canadiens within 4-2 at 7:24 when he jammed in a loose puck in the crease.

Paul scored his second goal of the game, and Tampa Bay’s second on the power play, at 17:40 to make it 5-2.

“We wanted to respond after they scored two goals in the first part of the third period,” Barre-Boulet said. “I think we had a good response, we got back on offense, so I think we learned something in Toronto.”

Christian Dvorak scored with 19 seconds remaining for the 5-3 final.

“I don’t think there’s any quit in this room, and I think we’ve been down a few goals before,” Pezzetta said. “And you can look around the locker room and everyone knows that we’re going to come out and at least try the best we can to come back, and I think that’s positive for our group to just know the fight that’s in everybody.”

NOTES: Kucherov’s goal was the fastest to start an NHL game this season. He scored 13 seconds into a 5-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 25, 2019, and is the second Lightning player ( Teddy Purcell) to score within the first 30 seconds of a game twice. … Tampa Bay also scored four goals in the first period Monday. The Lightning are the first team to score four or more goals in the first period on consecutive days since the 1993-94 Los Angeles Kings accomplished the feat Dec. 31-Jan. 1 of that season. … Tampa Bay’s 10 goals in the past two games are the most it has scored on consecutive days since scoring 14 goals from April 23-24, 2022.