NHL: Montreal 5, Tampa Bay 2

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Five different Montreal players scored Thursday to help the Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2.

Montreal led 2-0 when Maxime Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse scored in the first period. The lead grew to 5-0 on goals by goals by Alexei Kovalev in the second and Andrei Markov and Andrei Kostitsyn in the third.

Cristobal Huet stopped 25 of 26 Tampa Bay shots for the Canadiens, who averted a three-game losing streak during their season-high seven-game road trip.

Tampa Bay got third-period goals from Vaclav Prospal and Jan Hlavac to avoid a shutout.

Net-minders Johan Holmqvist and Karri Ramo combined to give up five goals on 25 shots for the Lightning, who lost for the sixth time in their last seven games.

Holmqvist started and gave up three goals on 15 shots. In relief, Ramo yielded two goals on 14 shots.

The contest had no power-play goals on five combined chances.