The Tampa Bay Lightning returned home to the St. Pete Times Forum Saturday night in need of a win. The team, coming off a three-game road trip, played well, but had dropped their previous two games in tight contests. With Montreal in town, and their contingent of fans out in force, the Lightning got off to a slow start and dug a hole too deep to recover from, falling to the Canadiens 4-2.
"We got a late start tonight," Lightning forward Marty St. Louis said. "That's the bottom line. You are thrown adversity throughout the year and we are in the middle of it right now. We just have to stick together and rectify the mistakes."
The late start showed in the first, with Montreal jumping out to a quick two-goal lead with goals from offensive Stalwart Hal Gill and David Desharnais in the first half of the first period. From there, it was an uphill battle the rest of the night.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2011.