TAMPA, Fla. — When Brayden Point poked the puck into the offensive zone, he found himself surrounded by four Montreal uniforms.
No big deal.
The Lightning’s leading goal scorer then reached out to put the puck on his stick, used his speed to weave through traffic, put a move on Montreal defenseman Joel Edmundson before sliding the puck under his stick. He set himself up to whip a wrist shot past Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen, leaving 19,902 jaws dropped at Amalie Arena on Wednesday night and giving Tampa Bay a three-goal second-period lead.
Point picked up where he left off before the Lightning’s week-long holiday break, netting two goals, including another highlight-reel score in Tampa Bay’s commanding 4-1 win over Montreal.
The Lightning’s top-line center now has a team-high 19 goals, including 12 in his last 14 games. That stretch includes four two-goal games, and Point has scored in seven of his last nine.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped the first 25 shots and picked up his 10th win in the past 14 starts. Vasilevskiy has held opponents to two or fewer goals in 12 of his last 13 games.
Back on home ice following a six-day break for the holidays, it didn’t take long for the Lightning to show that they had their legs back after dropping a pair of frustrating road losses on back-to-back nights last week.
They took a quick lead against the Canadiens with two first-period goals and never looked back.
Playing the first of three games in four days to round out the month of December, the Lightning struck quickly on Alex Killorn’s goal at the 1:55 mark in the first.
Victor Hedman sped into the offensive zone chasing down a Montreal turnover and initially was denied on a tight-angled shot below the right circle. But he recovered the puck off the end boards and made a backhanded pass to the slot, where Killorn beat Allen five-hole.
The Lightning scored again on the power play, as Point rifled a wrister from the right hashmark on a touch-pass feed from Nikita Kucherov, burying his shot top shelf far post over Allen’s blocker side with 5:51 left in the first.
After Point’s second goal, Brandon Hagel scored his fifth goal in his last five games on a rebound in front at the 8:31 mark in the third.
Tampa Bay did much of what Toronto and Detroit did to them last week against Montreal, controlling the puck and not allowing the Canadiens many scoring opportunities. Tampa Bay held Montreal to just 10 shots on goal in 5-on-5 play over the first two periods.
The Lightning penalty kill was 5 for 5 on the night, extending a strong stretch in which they are 27 for 29 in the month of December.
