Arriving at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night having lost four straight games, the Lightning hadn’t scored a goal since Thursday. But they didn’t waste any time against the Montreal Canadiens, taking a three-goal lead into the first intermission.

The Lightning played not only with the urgency that coach Jon Cooper said they lacked in Monday’s shutout loss in Toronto, but they seemed to play angry, focused on not leaving another tightly-contested game on the ice.

They regained first place in the Atlantic Division with their 6-1 win over the Canadiens, getting another stellar performance by Jonas Johansson, who stopped 26 shots playing for the second straight night in relief of injured starter Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The Lightning needed a goal early, and top-line center Brayden Point needed a goal for himself, opening scoring 2:27 into the game. Point’s goal was his first in more than five weeks — he was playing his second game back after missing the previous seven due to injury — and just his second since Oct. 14.

Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh scored twice in the third period to ice the game late, giving him 17 points in his last 13 contests.

After Point’s goal, Pontus Holmberg quieted the Montreal crowd when he jumped out of the penalty box and was gift-wrapped a breakaway when an errant pass to the point got past Canadiens defensemen Noah Dobson and right to Holmberg, who beat Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes at the 6:03 mark in the game.

Nikita Kucherov made it 3-0 with more offensive-zone pressure. After the puck popped out to the point, defenseman Max Crozier found Kucherov for a one-timer low along the right circle for his 13th goal of the season.

Johansson has done a remarkable job shouldering the goaltending load with Vasilevskiy out, including a rare assignment of starting both games of a back-to-back. He’s allowed just one goal in each of his last three starts, stopping 66 of 69 shots for a .957 save percentage.

D’Astous with a memorable night

Rookie defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous, a Quebec native from Rimouski, has a number of family members at the Bell Centre, and he played arguably the best game of his brief NHL career in front of them.

D’Astous was a team-best plus-5 — on the ice for each of the Lightning’s first four goals — recording a goal and an assist.

With the Lightning up 3-0 after one period, D’Astous scored 2:43 into the second period. The 27-year-old rookie jumped up in the offensive zone, providing pressure on the net, and worked his way into a soft spot on the ice in front of the net, where Kucherov found him just below the left hash setting up his third NHL goal.

Hedman sidelined again

Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman exited Tuesday’s game early due to injury and did not return. This was Hedman’s third game back after missing 12 games due to an undisclosed injury.

Hedman played just 4:54 Tuesday, his last shift a 25-second one that ended with 1:43 left in the first period.

The Lightning were easing Hedman back into his regular top-pairing workload. He averaged just 17:13 in his first two games back, well below the 23:25 he averaged in the 15 games before his injury, and did not play on the power play in either game.

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