The Montreal Canadiens pulled to within two points of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Atlantic Division by beating them 4-1 on Tuesday night at Benchmark International Arena.

Goaltender Jakub Dobes, the current NHL First Star of the week, continued his dominant stretch with a 36-save performance.

Forward Cole Caufield inched closer to 50 with his 47th goal of the season. He and Nick Suzuki also became the first pair of Habs to reach 80 points in a season since 1996-97.

The officials handed out 62 total penalty minutes on the night, but the Habs didn’t back down from the more playoff-weathered Bolts. The teams are on a collision course for a first-round playoff match up, and the bad blood is already brewing.

Lane Hutson nearly went end-to-end for the game’s first goal, but instead drew a power play that Montreal would subsequently capitalize on.

A day after his 22nd birthday, Juraj Slafkovsky opened scoring at the tail end of Montreal’s 5-on-3. It was his 29th goal of the season, and 12th with the man-advantage.

Tampa got one back just 1:16 later. Jake Guentzel turned Noah Dobson inside out on a wraparound before beating Dobes for the game-tying goal.

The Canadiens grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second period when Slafkovsky feathered a perfect pass through multiple defenders to Caufield for his 47th goal of the season. Both he and Mike Matheson got their 300th career points on the play.

The playoff-level intensity reached a boiling point in the third period, where 46 PIMs were handed out to both sides. To the delight of the Liveblog commenters on the Hockey Inside Out YouTube livestream, the Habs gave as good as they received.

With Tampa Bay on the power play and Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled for an extra skater, Mike Matheson scored an empty netter from his own end to give the Habs some badly needed breathing room. Suzuki added another to make it a 4-1 final. Caufield has yet to score an empty netter this season, but coach Martin St. Louis put him out there to try for number 48.

The win extends Montreal’s streak to six games. They’ve won all three games on their current road trip, with the lottery-bound New York Rangers up next on Thursday.

In the Atlantic Division standings, the Habs are two points back of the Bolts for second place. The Buffalo Sabres were the first team to clear the 100-point mark with a win over the New York Islanders.

It was a good night for the Boston Bruins, who kept pace with a win over the Dallas Stars to remain two back of Montreal. The Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings did no favours to their fading postseason hopes with bad losses.

The liveblog commenters have loved the talent level of this young Habs team all season, but have questioned how playoff ready they really are after getting manhandled by the Washington Capitals last spring. With Arber Xhekaj in the lineup replacing the injured Alexandre Carrier, he was there to play the sheriff in garbage time by tangling up with Scott Sabourin.

Having Josh Anderson back from injury and Joe Veleno on the fourth line also gave them more of a physical edge. The Game Score once again shone brightly on the top line.

Here’s what the liveblog commenters had to say about the statement win against their possible first-round opponent.

3. Tampa will be afraid, very afraid to play the Habs again.

Karen Rooney

2. I was hoping for 5 points on this 5 game road trip. We have 6 points in 3 games. OK I would be happy with 8 points. Beat the Rangers. How hard can it be?

Mark Reaume

The Habs are getting better every game just at the right time.

Rick Woods