Lightning sweep back-to-back with home win over Canadiens

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Dec 28, 2025

Published in Hockey

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The Lightning were just 3.8 seconds from sweeping their weekend road-home back-to-back, then allowed a young, hungry Montreal team to climb back into the game.

Tampa Bay blew a three-goal, third-period lead, which included Juraj Slafkovsky’s overtime-forcing goal in the regulation’s final moments.

It was certainly tougher than it should have been, but the Lightning got two points following the 5-4 shootout win, which moved them back atop the Atlantic Division with Detroit and gave them a one-point lead over Montreal.

Gage Goncalves and Brayden Point scored in the shootout, and Jonas Johansson stopped both shots he faced.

Coming off an emotional win over their cross-state rivals on Saturday, the Lightning wanted to avoid a letdown.

The Lightning and Canadiens were tied for second place in the Atlantic with 45 points entering the day. Just a month ago, the Lightning were in the same situation, returning home from a big win in Sunrise to a home game the following day, but a four-goal loss to the Canucks was one of their worst of the seasons.

As time wore down Sunday, there was a sinking feeling of another game slipping out of their hands as the Canadiens scored three goals — two by Slafkovsky — in the final 10 minutes, 44 seconds of regulation.

A day after their penalty kill saved the day down the stretch against the Panthers, the Lightning often found themselves in the box again Sunday, spending nearly six minutes of the opening period shorthanded. In part because of that, they didn’t get much going in the offensive zone, outshot 9-3 by Montreal in the first period.

The Lightning overcame their slow start thanks to a pair of Nikita Kucherov second-period goals and a strong start by Johansson.

Left wing Brandon Hagel returned to the Lightning lineup Sunday after missing four games following a hit to the head area on Dec. 15 against Florida.

Up next

At Ducks, 4 Wednesday TV/streaming: The Spot-Ch. 66; tblightning.tv Radio: 102.5-FM.

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