Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov (86) shoots as Montreal Canadiens left wing Nicolas Deslauriers (20) defends during the third period at Amalie Arena.Kim Klement
Nikita Kucherov scored the deciding goal in the fourth round of the shootout Saturday to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens.
Tyler Johnson scored his 20th of the season. Kucherov tied it late in the third with his 34th goal of the season. Louis Domingue made 27 saves and stopped three of four shooters in the shootout.
Brayden Point also scored in the shootout for Tampa Bay, his 10th conversion in 15 career shootout attempts.
Artturi Lehkonen and Alex Galchenyuk scored for Montreal. Charles Hudon set a career high with two assists.
Antti Niemi finished with 32 saves, including all three in overtime.
Montreal opened the scoring on the power play when a shot by Hudon was blocked but the rebound went right to Lehkonen who fired a one-timer past Domingue at 4:10 for his sixth goal of the season.
The Lightning would answer with a power-play goal of their own. Johnson fired home a one-timer from the left circle off a feed from Mikhail Sergachev at 13:43. The goal was just the second on the power play for Tampa Bay in the past seven games.
Galchenyuk put Montreal in front early in the second after Hudon intercepted a cross-ice pass from Ryan McDonagh, in his first game with the Lightning after being acquired at the trade deadline, that started a 3-on-1 rush the other way. Galchenyuk would hold the puck and wait for Victor Hedman to slide by before zipping a wrist shot past Domingue at 3:00 of the second period.
Kucherov tied the score with 6:17 remaining. J.T. Miller created the turnover behind the net and the puck squirted free to Steven Stamkos, who fed Kucherov alone in front.