TAMPA, Fla. -- Center Tyler Johnson said he wasn't even aware of the clock, so he had no idea there was only 1.1 seconds left when he took a centering pass from defenseman Victor Hedman, scoring the game-winner in the Tampa Bay Lightning's 2-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Amalie Arena for a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

"Truly amazing," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Johnson, who scored eight goals in 10 playoff games this season. "(I'm) extremely fortunate I'm the coach that gets to call him over the boards."

The Lightning, who had the NHL's best home record in the regular season, can finish the series with a home win Thursday night.

Tampa Bay led 1-0 much of the game, but Montreal tied the game with 9:57 left, and it looked all but sure to be headed to overtime when Tampa Bay made one last push down the left side of the ice against goalie Carey Price.

"I was just driving the net, Heddy was coming in wide," said Johnson, wearing a black Lightning T-shirt that read "JUST WIN BABY" in the locker room after the game. "I saw there was going to be somewhat of a lane and I was just praying it was going to come to me. Heddy made a great play, found my stick and I was able to put it in. Pretty lucky, but fortunate."

Johnson's goal marked the second time in six days that an NHL team won in regulation with less than 2 seconds remaining -- the Washington Capitals beat the New York Rangers on Thursday, also officially at 19:58.

The Lightning are now 8-0 against Montreal, including five regular-season wins, while being almost complete in avenging a four-game sweep against the Canadiens in last year's opening round. In NHL history, teams leading 3-0 in a series have an all-time record of 174-4, winning 98 percent of the time.

"You can imagine how we feel," said Canadiens left winger Max Pacioretty, whose team outshot the Lightning 31-19. "We have to move forward, come back tomorrow and try to play the same way. ... We have to find a way to stay positive. This has been done before, but it's not done in one day."

The Lightning are winners in four straight games, having been outshot in all four by a combined 40 shots. Asked what went wrong on the final play, Montreal coach Michel Therrien pointed to how well his team had played up to that point.

"I don't want to talk about mistakes," Therrien said. "We're not here to point fingers. I'm going to concentrate and the work ethic those guys showed."

Lightning goalie Ben Bishop carried a shutout well into the third period, but Montreal tied the game when right winger Brendan Gallagher, driving to the net, pushed a rebound under his pad to tie the game at 1 with 9:57 left.

Lightning center Alex Killorn scored a first-period goal to give Tampa the early advantage. With eight minutes left in the opening period, Killorn was set up with a strong entry pass from Lightning center Steven Stamkos, who picked up his sixth assist.

The Canadiens had more scoring opportunities through two periods, outshooting the Lightning 8-6 in the opening period and holding them without a shot for the first 12 minutes of the second. Tampa Bay focused on securing the lead, giving up 16 shots while taking only nine in the first two periods, but Bishop took a shutout into the final period.

Cooper lamented what he called a "52-minute prevent defense," happy to see his team find a spark in literally the final seconds of the game.

NOTES: For the first time in 10 playoff games, the Lightning played without C Cedric Paquette, sidelined with an undisclosed injury suffered in Game 2. Rookie LW Jonathan Drouin, who had been a healthy scratch in all but one game in the postseason, replaced him in the lineup. ... D Mark Barberio and D Nikita Nesterov were the healthy scratches among the Lightning's regular players. ... Canadiens G Carey Price was the first goalie to lead the NHL in wins (44), goals-against average (1.96) and save percentage (.933) -- the goalie triple crown -- since Chicago's Ed Belfour in 1990-91.