TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The final stretch of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s road to a repeat championship begins Monday night on home ice.

The defending champions started their Stanley Cup Final series against the Montreal Canadiens at Amalie Arena and came away with a strong 5-1 win.

Here’s are updates from the game:

11 p.m.:

Full Game 1 recap of Tampa Bay’s 5-1 win over Montreal in the Stanley Cup Final.

10:55 p.m.:

The Tampa Bay Lightning take Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final with a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Erick Cernak, Yanni Gourde and Steven Stamkos each notched a goal while Nikita Kucherov scored twice.

The two teams will meet again at Amalie Arena on Wednesday for Game 2.

10:53 p.m.:

Lightning Captain Steven Stamkos scores, giving Tampa Bay a 5-1 lead with just more than a minute to go in Game 1.

TB: 5
MTL: 1

10:36 p.m.:

Nikita Kucherov gets his second goal of the night to give the Lightning a comfortable 4-1 lead over the Canadiens with less than 10 minutes left to go in the final period of Game 1.

TB: 4
MTL: 1

10:20 p.m.:

The Lightning extended their lead again with 17 minutes left in the game thanks to a goal from Nikita Kucherov.

TB: 3
MTL: 1

9:52 p.m.:

The Canadiens have scored their first goal of the game with less than 3 minutes left in the second period.

TB: 2
MTL: 1

9:30 p.m.:

The Lightning have extended their lead over the Canadiens thanks to a second-period goal from Yanni Gourde.

TB: 2
MTL: 0

9 p.m.:

The first period is in the books and the Bolts lead the Canadiens 1-0 after Erick Cernak’s goal.

TB: 1
MTL: 0

8:35 p.m.:

The Lightning strike first with a goal from Erick Cernak, assisted by Ondrej Palat.

TB: 1
MTL: 0

8:25 p.m.:

The puck has been dropped at Amalie Arena and Game 1 is underway!

Players stand on the ice as the U.S. national anthem is played before the first period in Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens, Monday, June 28, 2021, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

8 p.m.:

Here are your Lightning starters for Game 1: Barclay Goodrow, Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, Mikhail Sergachev, David Savard and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The Lightning won their semifinal series in Game 7 against the New York Islanders on Friday to punch their ticket to their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final. The Canadiens defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in six games to make it to the team’s first Stanley Cup Final in 28 years.

According to the Associated Press, Tampa Bay is expected to use the same starting lineup Monday night as it did in Game 7 of the semifinal series. That includes Nikita Kucherov, who missed most of Game 6 before returning for Friday night’s clincher.

The Lightning and Canadiens will play their first two games of the series in Tampa at Amalie Arena before heading north to play Games 3 and 4 in Montreal.