Max Pacioretty (middle) celebrates with teammates David Desharnais and Greg Pateryn after scoring against the Lightning in the third period.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Captain Max Pacioretty scored in the third period as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 on Thursday night to extend their winning streak to six games.
Alex Galchenyuk and Torrey Mitchell, in an empty net, also scored for Montreal (7-0-1). Carey Price made 29 saves for his fourth consecutive win to start the season.
Alex Killorn scored the lone goal for the visiting Lightning (5-2-0), who lost against an Eastern-Conference opponent for the first time this season. Ben Bishop stopped 23-of-25 shots in defeat.
With the scored tied 1-1 in the third period, Pacioretty broke the deadlock at 10:23 by beating Bishop glove-side. Blown coverage by the Bolts meant the Canadiens captain found himself all alone on the edge of the face-off circle, and Bishop couldn't see the shot with Andrew Shaw posted firmly in front of goal.
Montreal remains the only team still undefeated in regulation time this year.
Price beat Tampa Bay for the first time in his last eight starts (1-5-2). His previous win against the Lightning was on Dec. 28, 2013.
Price wasn't tested much in the game's early going. Tampa got its first shot on net 12:14 into the game — Killorn from an extremely difficult angle.
After just a four-shot first period, the visitors were more threatening in the second.
Killorn beat Price for the game's first goal at 16:08 by deflecting home a slap pass from Victor Hedman. Killorn snuck in behind defenceman Alexei Emelin, put himself in a good position just outside the crease and got enough of the puck for his team-leading sixth goal of the season.
The 27-year-old Killorn has scored in six of Tampa's seven games this season.
It was just the second time this season Montreal conceded the first goal of the game.
Down 1-0 to start the third period, Price did his best to keep his side in the game. The Canadiens netminder robbed Ondrej Palat from close range with his toe.
Price's save proved monumental just minutes later when Galchenyuk beat Bishop for his second goal of the season.
With the Canadiens on the power play, Andrei Markov fooled the Lightning with a cross-ice pass instead of taking a shot on net. The first-line centreman Galchenyuk made no mistake with the one-timer just above Bishop's glove. Jeff Petry got the play started with a spin move at the blue line.
Mitchell added the empty-netter in the game's final minute.
Nikita Kucherov, who fell awkwardly into the boards in the first period, left the game and did not return.