Holiday travels follow one another and are similar for the Canadian.
Last season, the Montreal team won the first match of the trip before losing the next six. The previous year, she won only one of 10 meetings. She also showed a losing record in 2019-20.
Sunday, on New Year’s Eve, Martin St-Louis’ squad suffered a third defeat in a row which further undermined its position in the Eastern Conference standings, this time losing 4-3 against to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Florida club thus shows a harvest of 41 points, climbing to the last place giving access to the playoffs in the East. The Habs are behind by six points.
Brayden Point, Austin Watson, Calvin de Haan and Nikita Kucherov threaded the needle for the Lightning. While Andrei Vasilevskiy had a night off, Jonas Johansson stopped 27 pucks.
Cole Caufield and Johnathan Kovacevic gave the Canadian a 2-0 lead in the second period, but the Lightning then scored four consecutive goals. Nick Suzuki reduced the gap at the end of the match, but the Habs were unable to tie the game in the final moments.
“It was a series atmosphere. We played an excellent match, said St-Louis after the match. It’s been three games in a row that we’ve played against good teams and we’re here. We must continue. I have no regrets. »
Samuel Montembeault was tested 20 times and blocked 16 shots.
The Canadian’s last victory on New Year’s Eve dates back to 2018, when he defeated the Dallas Stars 3-2 in overtime. The Bleu-Blanc-Rouge will end its streak of seven games abroad by visiting the Stars on Tuesday.
A good start
Despite the defeat, the CH players have little to reproach themselves for in this meeting, giving their opponents few opportunities. But the talent of the Lightning made the difference.
“They have a lot of talent,” admitted St-Louis. You have to try not to give them too much. And honestly, for a large part of the match, that’s what we did. It’s hard not to have [la victoire] because we dominated a large majority of the match. It is most encouraging. I’m very proud of how we worked tonight and how we played as a team. »
“Of course it’s demoralizing when we don’t get the results, but we’re going to come back to work and we’re going to continue to push a little harder to get the results we deserve. »
Caufield scored the first goal of this game at 3:58 of the second period. His work on the forecheck allowed him to steal the puck from Steven Stamkos in the slot. He beat Johansson with a shot on the ice between the pads. It was his 10e fillet of the season.
Just after Caufield’s goal, Josh Anderson made a hard-hitting hit on Erik Cernak, who was stunned. Luke Glendening threw down the gloves to defend his teammate. Anderson received a minor penalty for his action.
Due to an injury to Christian Dvorak, St-Louis opted for a formation with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Kovacevic was back in the defensive squad.
Kovacevic took the opportunity to score his fifth goal of the campaign during an unusual sequence. While almost everyone in the arena thought the game was stopped following a save by Montembeault — including Johansson, who was skating in the corner of the ice — Kovacevic threw the puck into an empty cage from its own area.
Video review confirmed the goal, at 11:59 of the second period.
” I have never seen that. We were happy,” said St-Louis with a smile.
The Lightning, however, tied the game before the end of the period.
Point reduced the gap to a single goal with a good wrist shot, then Watson created the tie when his leaping pass deceived Montembeault’s vigilance.
In the third period, de Haan gave the Lightning an early priority in this game at 7:49 with a good wrist shot that beat Montembeault on the glove side.
Kucherov doubled his team’s lead with a little more than five minutes to go, then Suzuki brought the gap back to one goal. Defenseman Mike Matheson collected at least one point in a sixth straight game with an assist on the captain’s goal.
It was the 11e time the Lightning erased a deficit to win this season. Only the Stars (13), New Jersey Devils (13) and New York Rangers (12) did better.
Stamkos played a 1038e match with the Lightning. The Lightning captain overtook Quebecer Vincent Lecavalier (1037) at the top of the club’s history for games played in the regular season.