Last Updated: November 09, 2023, 00:30 IST
MONTREAL: Matt Tomkins waited a very long time to earn his first NHL win. But he may not change a factor about the way in which it occurred.
The 29-12 months-previous Tomkins was drafted within the seventh spherical in 2012 however solely made his first begin final month in Ottawa, making stops within the ECHL, American Hockey League and the Swedish Hockey League alongside the way in which.
On Tuesday night time, he made 22 saves to backstop the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens for his first victory in an NHL internet.
“Everything’s been worth it to get to this point, a lot of questions along the way of ‘am I doing the right thing?’ and ‘is this for me?’ and there’s been a lot of stops in getting here,” stated Tomkins. “It’s really special.”
After shedding in Tomkins’ first two begins, the Lightning did their finest to safe a win in his third.
A purple-sizzling Nikita Kucherov had a objective and an help, Nicholas Paul scored twice, and Alex Barre-Boulet and Michael Eyssimont additionally had objectives for Tampa Bay, which jumped out to a 4-0 lead an evening after giving up a 3-objective lead in a 6-5 additional time loss in Toronto on Monday.
Captain Nick Suzuki, Christian Dvorak and Michael Pezzetta scored for Montreal. Jake Allen allowed 4 objectives on 9 pictures earlier than getting the hook 13 minutes, 50 seconds into the sport.
Samuel Montembeault had 22 saves for Montreal, but it surely was Tomkins’ night time.
“What a thrill,” stated Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “If you were going to draw it up, I’m not sure you can draw it up any better than getting to play in the Bell Centre against the Montreal Canadiens.”
The Canadiens misplaced their fourth sport in a row, and the third in regulation.
Before some followers might take their seats, Kucherov opened the scoring with a simple wrist shot over Allen’s proper shoulder 22 seconds into the sport for his tenth objective of the season.
“You get scored on in the first shift, we’re a bit of a fragile team right now,” stated Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “We’ve lost a bit of confidence, so that’s kind of what happened in the first period.”
Kucherov, a Hart Trophy winner as league MVP in 2019, entered the sport one level again of the league lead and is as much as 11 factors in his previous three video games.
Paul snuck in behind Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson and tapped house a juicy rebound off a Steven Stamkos shot to make it 2-0 at 7:15 of the primary.
Barre-Boulet scored 1:54 later after Canadiens ahead Juraj Slafkovsky took a holding penalty, ending off a tic-tac-toe sequence on the facility play in entrance of household and associates within the Bell Centre crowd.
Eyssimont added to Tampa’s benefit with a brief-aspect shot that trickled by to make it 4-0 with 6:10 left within the first — and that was it for Allen.
The Canadiens settled issues down within the second with Montembeault manning the crease.
“It wasn’t an easy first period for anyone and it wasn’t necessarily Jake’s fault,” stated St. Louis. “But Sam stepped in the net, and look, he did the job.”
UP NEXT
Lightning: Host Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night time.
Canadiens: Visit Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night time.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
