Tampa Bay, Apr 28: Tampa Bay Lightning beat Montreal Canadians 3-1 for 2-0 lead in NHL semifinal playoffs. Vincent Lecavalier scored a pair of goals for the second straight game to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in for a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series at the St. Pete Times Forum on Sunday (April 25). Lecavalier, a Montreal native, also netted a pair of goals in Tampa Bay's 4-0 victory in the series-opener. He did not register a point in the first-round series against the New York Islanders, but has five points in the opening two games of this set. Nikolai Khabibulin, who made 21 saves in the Game 1 shutout, stopped 26 shots in this one. Fredrik Modin also scored for the Lightning, who head to Montreal for Game 3 of this best-of-seven series on Tuesday. Saku Koivu scored the lone goal for the Canadiens and Jose Theodore made 26 saves. Theodore finished this game after being pulled during the third period of Friday's opener.


Montreal are in familiar territory, having also lost the first two games of their opening-round series against Boston before coming back to win it in seven.


Bureau Report