TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos urged his teammates to not play “scared.”

The Lightning responded with their best performance of the playoffs, and now they’re headed to the Eastern Conference finals.

Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist, and Stamkos and Ondrej Palat also scored Tuesday night in a 4-1 victory that ended the Lightning’s second-round series against Montreal in six games.

The Canadiens fought off elimination in Games 4 and 5, but were unable to overcome Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop in the clincher.

“We were talking about this game like it was Game 7,” Stamkos said. “We clogged it up good in the third period. It was as good a defensive period as we’ve played.”

Kucherov finished with six goals in the series.

Palat also had a goal and assist for Tampa Bay, which played without forward Ryan Callahan, who had an emergency appendectomy on Monday night.