TORONTO -- Tyler Johnson scored twice and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Monday night for their seventh straight victory.
It was Johnson's first multi-goal game of the season. He was questionable to even play Monday after taking Kevan Miller's clearing attempt off his forehead in a 4-1 win at Boston on Sunday.
The Lightning's winning streak matches a season high. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves.
Nazem Kadri scored late in the third for Toronto, and Garret Sparks had 26 stops. The Leafs have lost two straight and seven of eight.
Johnson opened the scoring at 4:53 of the second period by beating a screened Sparks with a snap shot glove-side from near the top of the faceoff circle.
The Bolts forward made it 2-0 at 15:28 of the middle period by sneaking one past Sparks five-hole from the side of the net for his 11th of the season.
Brad Boyes nearly got the Leafs on the board late in the second on a power play, but his shot rang off the post.
Kadri picked up his 12th of the season, on a power play, at 17:45 of the third after getting the puck past a screened Vasilevskiy.
Sparks made his first NHL start since Dec. 17 and did his best to hold Toronto in the game during the first period as the Leafs were outshot 15-9.
Near the 12-minute mark, Sparks robbed Steven Stamkos in close as the Lightning captain couldn't get the puck up and over the rookie's left pad.
Moments later, Sparks sprawled out to stop Valtteri Filppula with the paddle of this stick.
Stamkos had his season-high six-game point streak snapped in the loss.
Tampa Bay played the second half of the game with six defensemen instead of seven after Andrej Sustr left the game with an undisclosed injury near the 7-minute mark of the second and did not return.
The Bolts have won all three meetings between the clubs this season. They'll meet again on March 15 in Toronto.
Game notes
Maple Leafs forwards Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau (muscle spasms) and Byron Froese (broken hand) each missed their first game since getting injured. Defenseman Jason Garrison returned to Tampa Bay's lineup after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury. Prior to puck drop, the Leafs observed a moment of silence for the late Andy Bathgate, who passed away last week.
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