Lightning unable to gain in Atlantic with loss to Canadiens

MONTREAL --The Tampa Bay Lightning failed to gain ground in the Atlantic Division with a 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Brayden Point and Pat Maroon scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves for the Lightning (42-24-6), who have lost their past two games and remained three points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for second place in the Atlantic. Toronto, which has two games in hand, lost 7-2 at the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
"Other than their first power play, which was really, really dangerous, I didn't really sense scoring chances at all," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "So, everything they touched went in the net and we, for some reason, lost our scoring touch tonight. So yeah, that's a tough one for us."
Kirby Dach scored in his first game since Feb. 14, Nick Suzuki had two assists, and Sam Montembeault made 31 saves for the Canadiens (28-37-6), who lost their previous two games, including 5-3 at Tampa Bay on Saturday.
"I liked our game," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "It's fun because you played the same team last game so you have a lot of examples, you can really show the things you need to improve and the way you want to show up against them, the things you want to do. So, we were ready."

Dach gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 8:27 of the first period on a shot from the slot that squeaked past Vasilevskiy and trickled over the goal line. Dach missed 16 games with a lower-body injury.
"I was ready for the game, the pace of play, and it felt good to be out there with the guys and contribute towards the win," he said.
Jonathan Drouin pushed it to 2-0 at 14:00 when he drove through the left face-off circle and scored glove side after receiving a cross-ice pass from Denis Gurianov.
Drouin dressed Saturday but did not play a shift after St. Louis said he would be disciplined for missing a team meeting Friday.
"Obviously sitting on the bench and watching the game was not fun, but I've owned my mistake," Drouin said. "It's nobody's fault other than me, so I wanted to have a good game tonight, and I thought the group had a good game as well."

Point cut it to 2-1 at 8:58 of the second period with a one-timer from the left circle on a return pass from Steven Stamkos before Mike Matheson responded at 16:58 to make it 3-1 with a wrist shot from the left point.
Maroon cut it to 3-2 at 14:54 of the third period with his first goal in 34 games. After a pass by Ross Colton went off Justin Barron and between the legs of Corey Perry, he scored from the right post.
"We've just got to continue what we're doing," Maroon said. "This team has played a lot of hockey over the course of three years. We've got some new faces too, so we challenge ourselves too, to be a good hockey team. So, that's what's the beauty of our team. We all hold each other accountable, and we all just respect each other and go out there and try to do our best every single night.
"The next 10 games, we've got to find a way to keep our game going in the right direction here."

NOTES:Canadiens forward Josh Anderson left the game at 19:33 of the third when he crashed into the net after colliding with Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. He will undergo more tests Wednesday and will not make the trip to play the Boston Bruins on Thursday. … Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle will miss the rest of the season after sustaining a high ankle sprain. … Vasilevskiy was 11-0-0 in his previous 11 starts against the Canadiens since Feb. 24, 2018. … Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher had one shot on goal, one hit and one blocked shot in 13:58 of ice time after missing 32 games with a lower-body injury. … Stamkos extended his point streak to four games (three goals, three assists).