Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Brett Connolly (14) celebrates his goal against Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price (31) during the second period at Bell Centre.Jean-Yves Ahern
Tyler Johnson scored twice in a four-goal second period as the Tampa Bay Lightning won the matchup for top spot in the NHL Eastern Conference with a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.
Brett Connolly and J.T. Brown also scored for Tampa Bay (26-12-4), which moved two points clear of Montreal atop both the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings.
Dale Weise and Max Pacioretty scored for Montreal (26-12-2), which holds two games in hand on the Lightning.
The Canadiens played their first home game since Dec. 20 after wining five straight on the road. They had won six in a row overall.
The Bolt's line of Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov, who each had two assists, is red hot. In their last seven games, Palat has 13 points while Kucherov and Johnson have 11 each.
Tampa Bay outshot Montreal 36-22. The Canadiens are now 16-1-0 when scoring first in a game.
Montreal was looking to avenge a 7-1 loss at Tampa Bay on Oct. 13, but did not play smart hockey against one of the league's best two-way clubs.
They thought they had a goal only two minutes in, but Andrei Markov's shot hit the inside of both goalposts and stayed out. Then Valtteri Filppula was stopped on a short-handed breakaway by Carey Price.
Montreal didn't get its first shot until 13 minutes in, but soon after, they opened the scoring when Weise was at the far post to redirect Tomas Plekanec's shot past Ben Bishop at 15:07.
The Lightning tied it 3:17 into the second when rookie Jonathan Drouin hit a goalpost, then got the puck to the net on another chance a moment later and Brown banged in the rebound.
A slashing call on P.K. Subban led to Johnson's goal at 10:42 on a feed from Kucherov and a Tom Gilbert giveaway during a line change saw Connolly score on a 4-on-2 rush at 18:16.
Palat poked the puck in through a scramble in Price's crease on a power play at 19:38.
Pacioretty got one back 5:01 into the third as he went in alone and scored off Bishop's glove.
Notes — The Lightning announced Tuesday that defenceman Radko Gudas will be out four months with a right knee injury. . . Filppula played his 600th NHL game.