The Montreal Canadiens once again faced a tough matchup that had serious playoff implications on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, similar to what happened on Sunday against the Carolina Hurrricanes, the Canadiens were able to win on the road and do so in convincing fashion by a final score of 4-1.
It was a fairly tight game between the Lightning and Canadiens as Montreal opened the scoring with a power-play goal by Juraj Slafkovsky in the first period. However, that lead didn't last long as Jake Guentzel tied it up less than two minutes later.
The Canadiens broke that tie in the second with Cole Caufield scoring his 47th goal and Montreal would not relinquish the lead from that point. In the third period they would score twice with goals by Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki to secure the 4-1 win.
They now have 96 points on the season, are 10 points ahead of the first team outside the playoffs and more importantly are only two points back of the Lightning for second in the Atlantic Division.
The Canadiens continue on the road as they head to New York to play the Rangers on Thursday night in hopes of extending their win streak to seven.
Arber Xhekaj back on defense after Alexandre Carrier's injury
On Sunday, Arber Xhekaj made his return to the ice for the first time since March 15th after being a healthy scratch during this recent stretch. However, he would be moved up to forward and brought some physicality in limited minutes.
Prior to the Lightning game, it was announced that Alexandre Carrier would be out for two-to-four weeks with an upper-body injury. This means that Xhekaj likely will be back with a regular role on the defense and it started tonight on the third pair with Kaiden Guhle.
It ended up being one of his best games in recent memory as he had almost 13 minutes of ice time, which was the most since January 29th against the Colorado Avalanche. The Canadiens are going to need to rely on Xhekaj more after Carrier's injury and this was a game that should give the team confidence that he can fill the role.
Cole Caufield scores to keep pace with Nathan MacKinnon
Cole Caufield had the deciding goal in the second period when Juraj Slafkovsky was able to feed a pass back across the crease for Caufield in front of an empty net. This is now his third straight game with a goal and seven in the last six games.
Caufield is well on his way to 50 goals with eight games left in the regular season but he could achieve much more this season as he keeps pace with Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead in goals. The Avalanche were off on Tuesday but did play on Monday and MacKinnon was able to score so the Avalanche forward's lead remains at two.
Canadiens win the second period again to propel them to the win
One of the recent trends during this six-game win streak is that the Montreal Canadiens have been winning the second period, and they did so again against the Lightning. They would end up tied at one after the first period, but Cole Caufield would score in the second period to give Montreal the lead, and they didn't look back.
During this win streak, the Canadiens have now out-scored their opponents in the second period 11-0. This game was much different than their last two meetings as the Lightning had a 4-1 lead and a 3-0 lead after two periods.
Jakub Dobes with another stellar performance in net
There have been plenty of reasons for this recent win streak but Jakub Dobes is probably the number one reason. He has been almost unbeatable as of late and had another incredible performance against the Lightning.
On Tuesday night, he would stop 36 of 37 shots and has now stopped 136 of 140 shots over his last four starts, which have all been wins. The biggest issue for most of the season has been the inconsistency from the goaltender position but with the way Dobes is playing, this team is showing they are very tough to beat.