MONTREAL (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored his first goal of the playoffs and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 on Sunday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Nikita Kucherov scored twice on power plays, Valtteri Filppula, Victor Hedman and J.T. Brown added goals, and Ben Bishop made 27 saves for the Lightning.

Jeff Petry and Tom Gilbert scored for Montreal. Carey Price allowed the most goals he has all season, finishing with 18 saves.

Game 3 is Wednesday night at Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay went 4 for 7 on the power play, and Montreal was 0 for 3.

Filppula and Hedman also scored with the man advantage as Tampa Bay got its first power-play goals since Game 2 of its seven-game opening series against Detroit.

Montreal is 1 for 26 with the man advantage in the playoffs.

The Canadiens scored the first goal of a game for only the second time in eight postseason contests when Petry took a pass from Torrey Mitchell and beat Bishop with a wrist shot from the blue line at 7:20.

Montreal let it slip away with undisciplined penalties. Brandon Prust got an extra 2 minutes for yapping at a referee, and P.K. Subban was sent off for cross-checking. Filppula tied it with Subban off on a shot from the right circle with 24 seconds left in the period.

Stamkos used a fortunate bounce to go in on a breakaway and deke Price for a goal 8:06 into the second. It was the Lightning captain's first goal in nine postseason games this year. He also had two assists.

The Lightning had a 4-on-3 man advantage when Tyler Johnson slipped a cross-ice pass to Kucherov for a shot into an open side at 12:29. Then, Price had no chance when Hedman finished a back-door play with Alex Killorn on a power play at 19:46.

Kucherov redirected Johnson's pass inside the post 6:37 into the third to make it 5-1, before Gilbert scored from the point at 11:06 for Montreal. Brown added his goal at 16:05.

Prust got a game misconduct with 3:55 left. He bumped Bishop, leading to a fight with Braydon Coburn.

NOTES: Center David Desharnais was a late scratch with the flu, forcing Montreal to juggle lines, including reuniting the EGG line of Lars Eller, Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher. . .. Tampa Bay lost twice at home in the first round against Detroit.