MONTREAL (AP) — Ondrej Palat scored with 38 seconds left in the third period, giving the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay's victory comes exactly five months after the Lightning beat the Canadiens in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.
Patrick Maroon and Corey Perry also scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves.
Nick Suzuki and Mike Hoffman scored for Montreal. Jake Allen stopped 24 of 27 shots
Tampa Bay fell behind 2-1 after surrendering goals to Suzuki and Hoffman, but the Lightning rallied in the third period.
Perry scored the tying goal with just over two minutes left in the third in his first game back Montreal, setting the stage for Palat's winner.
Maroon scored in the first period for Tampa Bay. The Canadiens made an early mistake when Kale Clague turned the puck over in front of his own net, giving Maroon an easy opportunity to give the Lightning the lead in the first.
Montreal tied it a 1-all at 4:20 of the second period on Suzuki's sixth goal of the season.
Hoffman scored the go-ahead goal on a shot from the top of the faceoff circle that went through a crowd of players and beat Vasilevskiy.
Perry tied the game 2-2 with 2:06 to go.
Palat scored the winner at 19:22 of the third period.
UP NEXT
Lightning: At Toronto on Thursday in the fourth game of a five-game trip.
Canadiens: Host the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.
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