By: John Kreiser Associated Press
Posted:
Updated:
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Brandon Hegel scored his second NHL hat trick, Steven Stamkos reached the 30-goal mark for the eighth time and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied in the third period to beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-3 on Saturday night. ,
Stamkos tied it at 3 with a power-play one-timer at 3:14 of the third. Hegel put the Lightning ahead with his second of the game with 5:58 to go when the deflection of Mikhail Sergachev’s shot went past Samuel Montembault.
Heigl, playing in his 200th NHL game, completed his hat trick by hitting an empty net with 43.6 seconds remaining.
Victor Hedman also scored for Tampa Bay, coming off back-to-back road wins against the New Jersey Devils. Brian Elliott finished with 18 saves.
Mike Hoffman, Denis Gurianov and Jesse Ylonen scored, Nick Suzuki had two assists, and Montembault made 36 saves for the Canadiens. They were coming off a 9-5 road loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night in which they allowed seven goals in the first period.
The Canadiens opened the scoring 5:12 into the game when Hoffman took Suzuki’s pass from the right board and took a shot past Elliott. Lightning got even at 11:31 when Hedman’s wrist shot from between the circles beat Montembault.
Tampa Bay went ahead 2–1 at 4:50 of the second period when Hegel rebounded Nikita Kucherov’s shot off the end boards and beat Montembault from the right circle. But Montreal got even 1:29 later when Gurianov beat Elliott on a one-timer from the lower right circle, then went ahead 3–2 when Hoffman set up Ylönen’s power-play goal.
Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin dressed for the game but did not see ice after missing a team meeting on Friday.
