Lightning stretch winning streak to 4 games with a 5-3 victory over the slumping Canadiens

MONTREAL — Victor Hedman had a goal and an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the slumping Montreal Canadiens 5-3 Sunday in the final NHL game before the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Nick Paul, Brayden Point, Zemgus Girgensons and Anthony Cirelli also scored for Tampa Bay, which stretched its winning streak to four games. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves.

Brendan Gallagher scored twice and Christian Dvorak added a goal for Montreal, which lost its third straight and for the eighth time in nine games.

Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes was pulled early in the second period after allowing three goals on eight shots. Sam Montembeault stopped 11 of 12 shots in relief.

The NHL takes a two-week break for the tournament between Canada, Sweden, Finland and the United States in Montreal and Boston.

Takeaways

Lightning: No Nikita Kucherov, no problem. Tampa Bay had plenty of offense and scored on its only power-play opportunity without its star winger. The Lightning said Kucherov was day to day with an upper-body injury.

Canadiens: Couldn't complete a comeback after allowing goals on Tampa Bay's first two shots. The Canadiens dominated play in the final 10 minutes, but couldn't get the equalizer.

Key moment

Point's power-play goal 1:05 into the second period gave the Lightning a 3-1 lead and chased Dobes. Hedman and Guentzel assisted on Point's goal.

Key stat

Gallagher's first goal was Montreal's first at home in approximately three hours of game time. The Canadiens were shut out 4-0 by the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and 4-0 by the Minnesota Wild on Jan. 30.

Up next

Tampa Bay hosts Seattle on Feb. 23, while Montreal will return to action at Ottawa on Feb. 22.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl