Brandon Hagel scored twice and added an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning opened a four-game road trip with their season-high fifth straight win, beating the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 on Saturday night.
After a three-point game (two goals, one assist) in Thursday’s 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, Hagel potted his initial goal in the first period. His second one — a power-play marker — put Tampa Bay up by four late in the second.
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist, Nicholas Paul scored and Anthony Cirelli hit the back of the net on the power play for Tampa Bay.
Steven Stamkos dished out a pair of assists, giving the captain a nine-game point streak against the Habs and points in 14 of his past 15 contests against them.
In stopping 22 shots and notching his 10th straight win over Montreal, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy improved his all-time record to 13-1-2 against the Canadian club.
The Lightning won for the 13th time in their past 16 games and are 7-3-0 against Atlantic Division opponents.
The Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki scored a goal, Kaiden Guhle had an assist and Jake Allen made 22 saves.
Montreal lost its third straight game and is 3-6-1 in its past 10 contests.
The Canadiens started with three shots and plenty of zone time, but the Lightning struck first when Hagel slipped behind the Habs’ defense. He took a stretch pass from Ian Cole, broke in on Allen and tallied at 2:57 of the first.
Shortly after killing off its 12th straight power play, Tampa Bay moved ahead 2-0 with good traffic in front of Allen. Nick Perbix’s shot from the right circle bounced out to Paul, who easily potted his 13th goal at 11:39 with Allen out of position after the initial shot.
In the second period, a double-minor high-sticking infraction by Montreal’s Jake Evans gave the Lightning a big advantage. Cirelli jammed in his first goal of the season at 9:26 just a few seconds after the five-on-three advantage ended.
On its sixth man advantage, the visitors took all of six seconds to push the lead to 4-0. Victor Hedman’s long shot off a faceoff win was deflected in by Hagel for his 12th marker with 2:13 left in the frame.
Sixteen seconds into the third, Suzuki gave the home crowd reason to cheer when he banked in his 15th goal off Vasilevskiy.
–Field Level Media
