Game 36: Lapierre lifts Habs to shootout win

Forgive Lapierre if he wanted to stay in Florida for a few more games – he was the hero on Monday night, scoring his first career hat trick, and head coach Guy Carbonneau played the hunch that Lapierre had a little more magic left in his stick for the shootout.

Prospal had gotten the Lightning on the board first at 13:18 of the first period, tipping home a goalmouth, power-play deflection past Price, Montreal defenceman Roman Hamrlik serving a minor for having high-sticked Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis.

The simple work of getting the puck to the net at the 46-second mark of the third period finally pulled the Habs even, Guillaume Latendresse stuffing a backhand under Lightning goalie Mike Smith after some good work by Mike Komisarek, Lapierre and Tom Kostopoulos.

That certainly awoke the many Canadiens fans in the St. Pete Times Forum, who had nothing to cheer about as their heroes went 0-for-5 on the power play through the first two periods. Montreal ultimately went 0-for-6.

With less than 10 seconds to play in regulation, Andrei Kostitsyn burst in on Smith and rang one off the far goal post, that close to winning the game before overtime.

Both Price and Smith made electrifying saves in overtime to keep their teams alive, both clubs swarming the nets. The Canadiens had outshot their hosts 25-18 through 60 minutes, then 5-4 in overtime.

It was a short, painful night for Montreal forward Alex Tanguay, who left the game early in the first period with a shoulder injury. Tanguay was checked with such force into the corner boards by hulking Lightning winger Evgeny Artyukhin that a pane of plexiglass was knocked out of its braces and onto the ice, causing a delay of a few minutes.

Artyukhin was further involved in the first, this time fighting a game but outgunned Kostopoulos, who gave away nearly five inches and 55 pounds.

Montreal had gone 4-0-1 in its last five games, while the Lightning had won three straight.

The Canadiens returned home for a brief two-day New Year's break. They're scheduled to practice Thursday afternoon in Brossard before flying to New Jersey to play the Devils on Friday. A rare Saturday night off will be followed by a 2 p.m. Sunday matinée at the Bell Centre vs. the Florida Panthers.