MONTREAL — Scott Gomez scored a goal and set up two others as the Montreal Canadiens downed the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Tuesday night for their fourth win in five games since the Olympic break.
Mathieu Darche, with two, Glen Metropolit and Benoit Pouliot also scored for Montreal (33-29-6) in the victory over one of the teams chasing them for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Steven Stamkos scored his 41st goal of the season and assisted on one by Martin St. Louis for Tampa Bay to extend his point streak to 17 straight games. It was also Stamkos’ team-record 17th power-play goal of the season.
Matt Walker also scored for the Lightning (27-27-11), who have lost six of their last seven.
Tampa Bay has the league’s second-worst road record at 9-19-5, better only than Edmonton’s 8-21-2.
Gomez, a major off-season acquisition for Montreal, has two goals and six assists in his last four games and five goals and 10 assists in his last 11.
The Lightning were called for too many men on the ice only 1:49 into the game and it took only a minute for Montreal to open the scoring.
Gomez carried the puck in, went around the net and fed the on-coming Metropolit for shot to the far post. It was Metropolit’s team-leading ninth power-play goal.
It was also the much-travelled centre’s 15th goal of the season, a career high and one more than he scored in 61 games for Montreal last season.
Gomez then picked up a loose puck in the corner and walked in front to beat Antero Niittymaki at 12:02.
The Lightning had heavy pressure on during a power play and Hal Gill threw a Jaroslav Halak rebound right onto Stamkos’s stick for a goal 3:47 into the second.
Gomez fed Pouliot going to the net for a goal only 41 seconds later and Darche added another at 7:33. He converted a Metropolit feed to chase Niittymaki, who allowed four goals on 13 shots, in favour of Mike Smith.
Walker’s point shot went in off Montreal winger Travis Moen’s stick at 10:03. It was only the third goal in 292 career NHL games for the native of Beaverlodge, Alta.
Tomas Plekanec pushed a puck forward for Darche to steer between Smith’s pads 3:36 into the third period and St. Louis backhanded a shot over Halak with 1:07 left to play.
Plekanec, the Canadiens scoring leader, was helped off and went to the dressing room at 16:25 of the first period after a knee-on-knee collision with Tampa defenceman Matthias Olhund, but was back on the bench a minute later and did not miss any action.
Flames move into seventh-place tie in West with 4-2 win over Wings
DETROIT — Jarome Iginla and Rene Bourque scored 1:31 apart in the third period, lifting the Calgary Flames to a 4-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Flames moved into a seventh-place tie with Nashville in the Western Conference and pushed Detroit to ninth.
The Red Wings have qualified for the playoffs in 18 straight seasons — the longest streak in sports — and earned home-ice advantage in at least one round 17 consecutive times. Those streaks are now in danger.
Calgary’s Daymond Langkow scored 5:18 into the second after a scoreless first. Pavel Datsyuk scored midway through the period to tie it, and Tomas Holmstrom had a power-play goal late in the period to put Detroit ahead.
Iginla snapped his 19-game streak without a goal against Detroit to make it 2-2. Bourque scored the winner 7:16 into the third.
Christopher Higgins added an empty-net goal in the final minute.
Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff and Detroit’s Jimmy Howard each made 28 saves.
Detroit had a power play shortly after falling behind in the third, but couldn’t take advantage.
The Red Wings then took two penalties that hurt their chances to tie the game.
Calgary, though, gave them hope when Ian White was called for tripping with 2:45 left. That set up 4-on-4 play and gave Detroit a power play that lasted just less than a minute.
Howard was pulled, giving Detroit a two-man advantage, but it didn’t produce a goal.
The Flames held on to tie the Predators with 75 points. Calgary has a two-point lead over the defending Western Conference champion Red Wings with 16 games left.
Wilson scores winner, Ellis stops 30 shots to lead Preds past Thrashers
ATLANTA — Colin Wilson scored off an Atlanta miscue and Dan Ellis turned aside 30 shots, leading the Nashville Predators to a 2-1 victory over the slumping Atlanta Thrashers.
Ryan Suter scored Nashville’s first goal, and Wilson took advantage of a hideous turnover by Mark Popovic to make it 2-0 before the first period was done.
Ellis made the lead stand up. The Thrashers were held to a second-period goal by Nik Antropov and took their third straight loss, further dampening playoff hopes that looked much better just a week ago.
Nashville snapped a two-game losing streak and strengthened its hold on the seventh seed in the Western Conference.
The Predators went ahead at 4:48 of the first when Suter scored a power-play goal on a screened shot from the point. With Colby Armstrong off for interference, Martin Erat clogged up things in front of the net, and it appeared that goalie Johan Hedberg never saw the puck.
Nashville extended its lead later in the period on Popovic’s amateurish mistake. Skating out of his zone, the defenceman fanned on a routine pass, then whiffed again as he hurriedly tried to clear it. Wilson scooped it up, went in alone on Hedberg and scored his fourth goal of the season at 18:38.
The Thrashers sliced into the deficit in the opening minute of the second period. Johnny Oduya flipped the puck toward the net, and Antropov scored his 17th goal by redirecting it past Ellis.
Atlanta appeared to have scored the tying goal before the period was over. Evgeny Artyukhin worked the puck in front and Chris Thorburn deflected it past Ellis. But he was clearly inside the crease, tangled up with the goalie, and the score was quickly waved off by the officials.
Gagné’s goal gives Flyers 15th straight win over Islanders
PHILADELPHIA — Simon Gagné’s power-play goal broke a third-period tie, and the Philadelphia Flyers rallied for a 3-2 win, their franchise-record 15th straight victory over the New York Islanders.
Gagné’s goal finished off the Flyers’ comeback from a 2-0 deficit. His attempted pass to Mike Richards deflected off the stick of Islanders defenceman Mark Streit and past goalie Dwayne Roloson with 13:54 remaining.
Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux also scored for the Flyers, who started their streak against the Islanders on Feb. 12, 2008. Philadelphia has outscored New York 51-25 during the run.
John Tavares and Kyle Okposo had goals for the Islanders.
