Tampa, FL (Best E Casino) - Vinny Prospal had a pair of goals, including the game-winner in the third period, as the Tampa Bay Lightning downed the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2, at St. Pete Times Forum.

Michel Ouellet also lit the lamp while Karri Ramo stopped 19 shots in the win for the Lightning, who have won three of their last four contests.

Chris Higgins and Tomas Plekanec both had a goal while Cristobal Huet gave up three goals on 36 shots for the Canadiens, who have dropped three straight and four of five overall.

With the score tied at 2-2 in the third period, Tampa Bay took the lead as Vincent Lecavalier caused a turnover behind the Montreal net and centered the puck to Prospal, who snapped a wrister on net. Huet slowed it down, but the disc trickled over the goal line with 8:09 to play.

Montreal pulled Huet with under two minutes to play and had several shots on goal, but Ramo made several nice saves, including a sliding pad save off an Andrei Kostitsyn one-timer in the final moments of the game.

Montreal got on the scoreboard just 50 seconds into the game as Andrei Markov sprung Higgins with an outlet pass and Higgins faked to the backhand before slipping the puck past the right pad of Ramo.

Tampa Bay got the goal back at the 5:15 mark of the first as Jan Hlavac's shot from the left circle was stopped by Huet, but Ouellet poked in the rebound.

The Canadiens took a 2-1 lead on the power play halfway through the first period. Mark Streit flicked a pass from the low left circle on the fly to the slot where Plekanec one-timed it into the right corner of the net.

The Lightning, though, again tied the game as Prospal's shot from the right circle went through a screen and beat Huet with just 41 seconds left in the opening stanza.

The teams were unable to break the deadlock in the second period as Huet turned aside 10 shots and Ramo made four saves.

Game Notes

Plekanec has 21 goals on the season, which is a new career-high...Tampa Bay plays in Philadelphia on Thursday...Montreal plays in Florida on Wednesday...Each team won twice in the series this season, but Montreal has won eight of the last 12 games...Prospal has 25 goals on the season and tied his career-high...Montreal went 1-for-3 on the power play while Tampa failed to scored on either of its two chances with the extra skater.