Last season, the Montreal team won the first game of the trip before losing the next six. Last year she only won one out of ten meetings. It also posted a loss in 2019-20.

On Sunday, New Year's Eve, Martin St. Louis' troops suffered a third straight defeat, further eroding their position in the Eastern Association standings, this time losing 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

This means that the club from Florida has a harvest of 41 points and climbs to the last place, which allows access to the playoffs in the East. The Habs are six points behind.

Brayden Point, Austin Watson, Calvin de Haan and Nikita Kucherov led the way for the Lightning. While Andrei Vasilevskiy had a night off, Jonas Johansson stopped 27 pucks.

Cole Caufield and Johnathan Kovacevic gave the Canadians a 2-0 lead in the second period, but the Lightning then scored four goals in a row. Nick Suzuki narrowed the gap at the end of the game, but the Habs were unable to tie the game in the final moments.

Samuel Montembeault was tested 20 times and blocked 16 shots.

The Canadian's last New Year's Eve win dates back to 2018, when he beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 in overtime. The Bleu-Blanc-Rouge will end their series of seven away games on Tuesday with a visit to the Stars.

A good start

Despite the defeat, the CH players have little to blame themselves for in this encounter.

Caufield scored the first goal of the game at 3:58 of the second period. His work on the forecheck allowed him to steal the puck from Steven Stamkos in the slot. He hit Johansson with a hit on the ice between the pads. It was his tenth goal of the season.

Shortly after Caufield's goal, Josh Anderson delivered a hard hit to Erik Cernak, who was stunned. Luke Glendening threw down his gloves to defend his teammate. Anderson received a minor penalty for his action.

Due to an injury to Christian Dvorak, St. Louis opted for a formation with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Kovacevic was back in the defensive squad.

Kovacevic took advantage of the opportunity and scored his fifth goal of the season in an unusual sequence. While almost everyone in the arena thought the game had been abandoned after a save by Montembeault – including Johansson, who was skating in the corner of the ice – Kovacevic threw the puck from his own penalty area into an empty cage.

Video review confirmed the goal at 11:59 of the second period. However, the Lightning tied the game before the end of the period.

Point cut the deficit to a single goal with a good wrist shot, then Watson equalized when his diving pass deceived Montembeault's alertness.

In the third period, de Haan gave the Lightning early priority in the game at 7:49 with a good wrist shot that beat Montembeault on the glove side.

Kucherov doubled his team's lead with just over five minutes left, then Suzuki cut the lead back to one goal. Defender Mike Matheson picked up at least a point on the captain's goal for the sixth straight game.

Montembeault denied Brendon Hagel a goal late in the third period and kept the lead at one goal. However, his teammates were unable to catch up from behind.

It was the 11th time the Lightning came from behind to win this season. Only the Stars (13), New Jersey Devils (13) and New York Rangers (12) performed better.

Stamkos played his 1,038th game for the Lightning. The Lightning captain passed Quebec's Vincent Lecavalier (1,037) for the lead in club history for regular-season games.