Canadiens blow lead, Johnson scores in OT to lift Lightning

TAMPA, Fla. — Montreal coach Michel Therrien was short and direct after the Canadiens blew a late lead and lost in overtime to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Tyler Johnson scored his second goal of the game 1:36 into the extra session and the Lightning rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period to beat the Canadiens 4-3 on Wednesday night.

“No positive,” Therrien said. “It’s unacceptable.”

Montreal is 15-2-1 when ahead entering the third period.

“The desperation was not there,” Therrien said. “They certainly had more desperation than us.”

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Johnson’s winner from the right circle got past goalie Carey Price.

Tampa Bay, 4-4-2 in its last 10 games, has little time to celebrate the victory with another home game Thursday night against Toronto.

“It’s a ‘what have you done for me lately’ league,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “If you have a bad loss, you’ve got to turn the page. You have a good win like we did, you want to hold onto that feeling, but we can’t hang our hat on what happened.”

Tampa Bay also got goals from Victor Hedman and Ondrej Palat, who combined to tie it at 3 in the third. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots.

“It’s a big boost to get a win like this,” Hedman said.

Shea Weber, Alexander Radulov and Chris Terry scored for the Canadiens, who have lost three in a row. Price had 26 saves.

Soon after Price made a stellar reaching stick save on Palat’s redirection early in the second period, Terry made 3-1 from the low right circle.

Radulov got a gift goal 3:24 into the game when Vasilevskiy misplayed a dump-in and Paul Byron passed from behind the net for the first of his two assists.

“He gave us a chance to stay in the game,” Therrien said of Price. “We didn’t play well in front of him.”

Johnson tied it midway through the first after a turnover by Weber, who got a power-play goal three minutes later to put Montreal up 2-1.

Weber has nine goals, including eight on the power play.

Weber also had a big check in the third on Vladislav Namestnikov, who skated off under his own power. Weber was serving a tripping penalty when Palat tied it with 3:30 left in the third.

Hedman had cut the Lightning deficit to one midway through the third.

Kucherov (six games, lower body) and Palat (five games, undisclosed) both returned from the Lightning’s lengthy injury list. However, centre Valtteri Filppula was scratched after missing a team meeting.

Cooper said Filppula will be back in the lineup Thursday,

Kucherov had two assists, and Palat also had an assist.

NOTES: The Lightning’s injury list still includes G Ben Bishop, C Steven Stamkos and right wing Ryan Callahan. … Montreal Cs Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais, both out with knee injuries, have resumed skating. … Radulov had gone pointless in his six previous games.

UP NEXT

Canadiens: Play the third game of a seven-game trip Thursday night at Florida.

Lightning: At home for the second game of a five-game homestand Thursday night against Toronto, which played at Florida on Wednesday night.

Mark Didtler, The Associated Press