San Jose: Roberto Luongo likes playing in San Jose. After making 35 saves for his 74th career shutout, he has even more reason to enjoy it.

Luongo was rock solid as the Florida Panthers blanked the Sharks 2-0 Thursday night on goals by Colton Sceviour and Nick Bjugstad.

“The first 40 minutes was probably some of the best hockey we’ve played, system-wise,” Luongo said. “No matter what the situation was in the game, we didn’t deviate from our system. Even though we had the lead, we still kept playing the right way. We didn’t sit back and try to protect.”

Florida coach Bob Boughner won in his return to San Jose. He served as an assistant coach for the Sharks the last two years.

“The two points are the most important thing to me,” Boughner said. “We talked this morning about how important this place was to me and the connections I had and how first-class this organisation was in taking care of me and giving me a chance. But the two points are the most important.”

Luongo earned his first shutout of the season and first in 32 games against San Jose.

“That guy never ceases to amaze,” Boughner said. “He kept his composure, especially in the scrambles. He wasn’t over-moving. He was real square every time.”

Steven Stamkos had two goals and two assists, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves to beat mentor Ben Bishop, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 6-1.

Vasilevskiy was Bishop’s backup in Tampa Bay for parts of three seasons until Bishop was dealt to Los Angeles last February. Bishop holds the Lightning career wins record with 131, while Vasilevskiy has gone 26-5-3 since taking over the starting role. It was Bishop’s first game against Tampa Bay since the trade.

Stamkos has 10 goals and an NHL-best 35 points after missing most of last season with a lateral meniscus tear. Mikhail Sergachev, Brayden Point, Jake Dotchin and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning, who have the NHL’s best record at 15-2-2.

Radek Faksa scored for Dallas, and Bishop stopped 22 shots.

Derek Stepan and Christian Fischer scored power-play goals in the third period and Arizona rallied to beat Montreal for their first regulation victory of the season.

Brad Richardson, Christian Dvorak and Tobias Rieder also scored for the Coyotes, and Antti Raanta made 33 saves. Arizona snapped a five-game losing streak to improve to 3-15-3.

Brendan Gallagher, Paul Byron, Joe Morrow and Shea Weber scored for the Canadiens, and Charlie Lindgren stopped 27 shots.