MONTREAL

Rookie Yanni Gourde scores two, Kucherov gets his 40th as Bolts top Canadiens

Bill Beacon The Canadian Press
Published Friday, April 7, 2017 10:31PM EDT Last Updated Friday, April 7, 2017 10:32PM EDT

Montreal Canadiens' Artturi Lehkonen (62) falls as he tries to beat Tampa Bay Lightning's Yanni Gourde (65) to the puck during second period NHL hockey action in Montreal on Friday, April 7, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

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Rookie Yanni Gourde scored two goals and Nikita Kucherov got his 40th goal of the season as the Tampa Bay Lightning kept their playoff hopes alive with a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night.

Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning (41-30-10), who need to win their final regular season game Sunday against Buffalo and have Toronto and the New York Islanders lose to take the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay was coming off a win Thursday night in Toronto.

Dwight King and Artturi Lehkonen scored for the Canadiens (46-25-9), who end the regular season Saturday night in Detroit. Montreal opens the playoffs Wednesday night against the New York Rangers.

Montreal outshot Tampa Bay 29-22.

The desperate Bolts faced a Canadiens team that had already clinched first place in the Atlantic Division and rested three banged up starting defencemen -- Shea Weber, Jordie Benn and Alexei Emelin.

Kucherov could have had three goals in the first period.