TAMPA — The Lightning had played so well in December that they owned the best points percentage in the Eastern Conference going into their final game of the calendar year Sunday at Amalie Arena. But in their first two games coming out of the holiday break, home games on back-to-back days against the Rangers and Canadiens, something has been off.

The Lightning have come out of the holiday break with two subpar outings. They overcame their issues on Saturday against the Rangers, thanks to their special-teams success and Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 42-save outing. But they weren’t able to replicate that against Montreal.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jake Evans scored for the career-high fifth consecutive game and the surging Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Sunday night. Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia, Brendan Gallagher and Alex Newhook also scored to help the ...

A blueline shot from defenseman Kaiden Guhle was tipped by Christian Dvorak and allowed the Canadiens to retake the lead in period two. Montreal extended its lead on a 2-on-1, when Jake Evans roofed a shot into the top left corner of the net late in period two.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jake Evans scored for the career-high fifth consecutive game and the surging Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Sunday night. Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia, Brendan Gallagher and Alex Newhook also scored to help the ...

TAMPA, Fla. — Jake Evans scored for the career-high fifth consecutive game and the surging Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Sunday night. Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia ...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jake Evans scored for the career-high fifth consecutive game and the surging Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Sunday night. Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia ...