Goalies Jakub Dobes and Samuel Montembeault allowed three goals apiece for the Montreal Canadiens in a 6-1 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday at the Bell Centre.

Dobes was pulled after allowing three goals in the first period on 15 shots. Montembeault fared no better the rest of the way, only stopping nine of 12 shots.

The Canadiens’ home record dropped to 7-8-1 on the season.

After the game, the team announced they had recalled top goalie prospect Jacob Fowler from the AHL’s Laval Rocket, along with Owen Beck and Adam Engstrom.

Tampa Bay were without their star goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was placed on injured reserve. Backup Jonas Johansson made 26 saves in the win. The Bolts also lost defenceman Victor Hedman to injury in the first period.

It didn’t take long for the Canadiens to fall behind. The Bolts took a 2-0 lead in the first 6:03 of the game. Brayden Point undressed Jayden Struble and Dobes for the ice breaker, followed by Pontus Holmberg on a breakaway coming out of the penalty box.

The final straw for Dobes was Nikita Kucherov’s sharp-angled one-timer goal with 2:48 left in the first period following a scramble in front. 3-0 Tampa Bay after 20 minutes.

Dobes, who was making his fourth consecutive start, was replaced by Montembeault to start the second period. It took all of 2:43 for the Bolts to pad their lead to 4-0, this time off a tap-in by Rimouski native Charle-Edouard D’Astous, who was left all in alone in front.

The Canadiens finally hit the scoresheet with 53.4 seconds remaining in the second period. Oliver Kapanen’s power-play goal, assisted by Nick Suzuki and Ivan Demidov, was the only time Johansson was beaten on the night and all the Habs could muster in a period where they outshot the opposition 15-4.

Darren Raddysh single-handedly outscored the Canadiens in the third period. His first of two went bar down coming off the rush. It caught Montembeault by surprise and the officials went upstairs to confirm the puck crossed the line fully. It did. 5-1 Bolts.

And finally, Raddysh scored again, this time with the man-advantage on a point shot that had Montembeault sliding in the other direction. Tampa completed the touchdown at 6-1. Josh Anderson vented his frustrations by dropping the gloves with Scott Sabourin, but the fight didn’t go in his favour.

If you go by Moneypuck’s Deserve To Win O’Meter, the Canadiens were actually the better team on the ice more often than not.

So what happened? Well, when your goaltenders have sub .800 save percentages (Dobes at .786, Monty at .769), you can throw the simulations out the window. Last night was so bad, the club had no choice to break-glass-in-case-of-emergency on Fowler. They likely did not enter the season thinking they would have to call on him so soon.

And the Habs can’t even use the back-to-back excuse, since it was Tampa Bay who got their bell rung on Monday night in a tough 2-0 loss to the Leafs. The Lightning entered the game having been shut out twice in a row.

It wasn’t just the goalies. Hockey Stat Cards confirmed the eye test that bottom-six vets Anderson, Jake Evans and Brendan Gallagher are bringing little to the table right now. The injuries to Patrik Laine, Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach have robbed the team of an entire scoring line, and the remaining players are unable to make up the difference.

Apologies to the liveblog commenters: I was under the weather and unable to host a livestream over on the Hockey Inside Out YouTube channel. I’m guzzling cold medicine at the moment and barring any setbacks I plan on returning on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Perhaps for Fowler’s NHL debut?