Montreal: Steven Stamkos scored his first goal of the NHL play-offs as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semi-final series.
In the Western Conference, Anaheim topped Calgary 3-0 and Chicago defeated Minnesota 4-1 as both teams opened up 2-0 leads in their series, as well.
In Montreal, Nikita Kucherov scored twice on power plays and Valtteri Filppula, Victor Hedman and J.T. Brown added goals for Tampa Bay, which went 4 for 8 with the man advantage.
Ben Bishop made 27 saves for the Lightning, who seized home-ice advantage as the series moves to Tampa Bay for Game 3 on Wednesday.
“I don’t know how much home ice has been an advantage in all the play-offs so far,” Bishop said. “We look forward to going home, but it’s not going to be any easier.”
Jeff Petry and Tom Gilbert scored for Montreal. Carey Price allowed the most goals he has all season, finishing with 18 saves.
Montreal are 1 for 26 on power plays, including 0 for 3 on Sunday, in the play-offs.
Although Calgary showed more fight after Anaheim’s 6-1 win in the opener, the Ducks moved half-way to their first Western Conference finals since 2007, the team’s only championship year.
Frederik Andersen made 30 saves in his first career post-season shutout, and Matt Beleskey, Hampus Lindholm and Nate Thompson each scored goals for the Ducks, who have followed up their first-round sweep of Winnipeg with two solid victories over the upstart Flames.
Anaheim won six straight play-off games for the first time since 2006.
“We’re a really good team, so we battle hard for each other,” Andersen said after holding the Flames to one goal on 54 shots in the first two games. “I’m most excited about the two wins. That’s pretty much all I care about.”
In Chicago, Patrick Kane scored two goals and Corey Crawford made 30 saves as the Blackhawks improved to 5-0 at home in this year’s play-offs.
Patrick Sharp also had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Toews added a goal in the second for Chicago.
Kane’s eighth career multi-goal play-off game gave him 101 points in 101 postseason games. The Blackhawks improved to 63-38 in the play-offs with the dynamic winger in the line-up, winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 and 2013.
Defenseman Matt Dumba scored for Minnesota, and Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves. The Wild are winless in eight post-season games at Chicago.