Canadiens 'Playing Well But Not Finishing Games' | RECAP: MTL @ TBL

Forwards

22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
89 Joshua Roy - 15 Alex Newhook - 40 Joel Armia
11 Brendan Gallagher - 71 Jake Evans - 17 Josh Anderson
70 Tanner Pearson - 36 Colin White - 56 Jesse Ylonen

Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - 21 Kaiden Guhle
72 Arber Xhekaj - 58 David Savard
54 Jordan Harris - 26 Johnathan Kovacevic

Goaltenders

Starter: 30 Cayden Primeau
Alternate: 34 Jake Allen

Out of the lineup

Scratches: Michael Pezzetta, Sam Montembeault
Injuries: Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Rafael Harvey-Pinard (lower body), Jayden Struble (lower body)

The Canadiens played well pushing the Tampa Bay Lightning beyond regulation time. It was the second game in a row that Montreal took the opposition to a shootout. But  like in Sunrise, the Canadiens could not finish.

In the sixth round of shootout, Victor Hedman beat Primeau for the game-deciding goal. Montreal has won just once in their past eight games.

The Canadiens got off to a great start, with goals from Joel Armia and Jake Evans. Kaiden Guhle and Brendan Gallagher played the supporting roles. Montreal owned a 2-0 lead heading to the first intermission.

As was the case on Thursday night, the opposition dominated the second period. Tampa Bay outshot Montreal 13-6 getting goals from Braden Point and Anthony Cirelli. Point extended his point streak to nine games.

Josh Anderson scored his first goal in 16 games, deflecting a third period shot by Cole Caufield to put Montreal up 3-2. The Canadiens power play gave up a league-leading eleventh shorthanded goal. Tyler Motte tied the game midway through the third period to set up overtime.

Canadiens (23-28-10)
Shots: 31
Face-off %: 49.1
Power play: 0/2
Penalty minutes: 9
Hits: 24
Blocks: 15

Lightning (33-24-6)
Shots: 33
Face-off %: 50.9
Power play: 0/2
Penalty minutes: 9
Hits: 23
Blocks: 16

Canadiens Scorers
1st period: Armia (11), Evans (5)
2nd period: --
3rd period: Anderson (8)
OT: --
SO: --

Lightning Scorers
1st period: --
2nd period: Point (32), Cirelli (13)
3rd period: Motte (6)-SHG
OT: --
SO: Game deciding goal - Hedman

Goaltenders
MTL: Primeau (OTL) 5-6-2
TBL: Vasilevskiy (W) 21-15-1

Brendan Gallagher - In a feisty game Gallagher played his usual wrecking ball self. He earned an assist on Jake Evan's goal.

Martin St. Louis

"We played well enough to win but we just couldn't make it happen. I wouldn't say it's frustrating."

Cole Caufield

"We were strong in the first period, but we knew the Lightning were going to get their fair share of scoring chances. At the moment we are playing well, in general. It's just about finishing games better."

The Canadiens have two games left on their four-game road trip, Tuesday night in Nashville and Thursday night in Raleigh.

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