Montreal @ Tampa Bay preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 15, 2019 ) Tampa Bay 3, Montreal 1

The Tampa Bay Lightning look to continue their success against Atlantic Division foes and build off one of their best efforts of the season when they host the surging Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. The Lightning have been inconsistent through the first half of the season, but are 11-2-0 versus Atlantic Division opponents after rolling to a 6-1 victory Monday over Florida before the Christmas break.

“These are the teams we’re chasing,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told reporters Monday after starting a stretch of six straight games against their Atlantic Division rivals. “We’re running through the division now. … We’ve got to start gaining points, and this was a good first step.” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, who scored twice in Monday’s win, told reporters his team must be ready to make a push after the break and will take on the Canadiens twice in the next six days while sitting two points behind them in the standings with two games in hand. Montreal begins a three-game, four-day trip south after finishing off a satisfying 3-1-0 trek through Western Canada with a 6-2 victory at Winnipeg on Monday for its sixth win in the last eight contests. “I thought we had a really good second and in the third we played a really smart period,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien told reporters. “We were playing on our toes, we weren’t gambling and we were regrouping and reloading extremely well. Didn’t give them life and I thought that was important.”

TV: 7 p.m. ET, TVA, Sportsnet East, Sportsnet 360, CITY (Montreal), FS Sun (Tampa Bay)

ABOUT THE CANADIENS (18-13-6): Left wing Tomas Tatar leads the team with 32 points and joined linemate Phillip Danault with two goals in the victory at Winnipeg while the third member of the trio Brendan Gallagher had two assists. “I think the whole line is playing really well and clicking,” Tatar told reporters after the win. “. … We’re just trying to work hard and continue to be desperate for the team. I think just because we’re talking a lot, it’s just working for us right now.” Gallagher is tied for second on the team in points (30) with All-Star defenseman Shea Weber, who has seven to go along with a plus-4 rating in his last seven games.

ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (18-13-4): Right wing Nikita Kucherov is warming up again with a six-game point streak (three goals, six assists) and leads the team with 40 points while captain Steven Stamkos and Hedman boast 32. Center Brayden Point tops the club with 14 goals after scoring four times in his past six contests and left wing Alex Killorn owns 11 - two in the past three games. “The big thing for (Killorn) is when he’s skating and using his body he can be very effective,” Cooper said. “(He) has been really determined this year. He’s going and getting pucks. He’s been dynamite around the net, and he’s been great on the power play.”

OVERTIME

1. Montreal RW Joel Armia (12 goals, 21 points) left Monday’s game in the second period with a hand injury and is week-to-week.

2. Tampa Bay G Andrei Vasilevskiy (15-9-2) is 8-1-2 with a .933 save percentage against Montreal.

3. Canadiens C Jesperi Kotkaniemi is expected to be in the lineup Saturday after missing the last eight games because of a concussion.

PREDICTION: Lightning 3, Canadiens 2