- The same woman who did the Canadian anthem is back for Game 2. Another loss is due.
First period
- The top lines hems the Lightning in for a full minute to open the game. They were even able to make a change on the fly despite the bench being on the other half of the ice.
- Scott Sabourin comes on the ice the first time Josh Anderson comes out. Sabourin gets in Anderson’s face. Anderson laughs.
- Alex Newhook catches the Lightning with too many forwards pressing for offence, and Lane Hutson jumps up to take half the zone to himself. Newhook finds him, but Hutson’s shot is stopped.
- Newhook takes another pass and gets in close to net, but chooses to send a pass to a tied-up Alexandre Texier instead of taking the 12-foot shot. They can’t pass those up.
- Anderson gets a chance on a dump-in pass he races onto. Again Vasilevskiy makes the save, his fourth of the opening four minutes.
- Zachary Bolduc backchecks and steals the puck away from the Lightning just as they think they’re actually going to have a dangerous rush.
- Sabourin launches himself at Phillip Danault in the neutral zone. Jon Cooper’s goon is doing exactly what the coach wanted him to to.
- Tampa Bay finally gets a shot with 8:40 played. Kaiden Guhle’s stick broke, and it was his man, Brandon Hagel, who took the shot. It’s a goal, the third one that directly resulted from a Montreal broken stick in this series.
- Arber Xhekaj unnecessarily jumps into a scrum below the goal line and will go to the box for it. A power play for Tampa Bay that you know Martin St-Louis isn’t going to be happy about.
- Jake Evans goes in a short-handed rush with Newhook. As the puck is played back out front, Evans is about to tuck the puck around Andrei Vasilevskiy, but gets knocked down before he can complete his move.
- Another Montreal penalty is on the way. Mike Matheson was battling with his man below the goal line and got his stick high. As the Lightning try to set something up at six-on-five, Nikita Kucherov interferes with Kirby Dach at the blue line and negates his team’s penalty. Hagel sees the opportunity to go after Anderson with six skaters on the ice to Montreal’s five, and fists and elbows are flying behind Dobeš’s net. The end result is a power play for the Canadiens.
- The Lightning put all four penalty-killers on Slafkovský in the slot, and that leaves Hutson open at the top of the zone to fire a shot off Erik Cernak’s knee to tie the game, a fourth power-play goal for Montreal.
- Kucherov hits Anderson right in the numbers about three seconds after Anderson played the puck. No penalty.
- The refs have no choice but to call the next penalty. It’s Nick Paul with a cross-check to Bolduc’s back.
- The period expires, and the Lightning jump the closest Hab to them. Yanni Gourde blasts Bolduc after the whistle, and there will be another Montreal power play to start the second period. Is this Cooper’s master plan?
Second period
- After the ref very clearly announced that Montreal would begin the second period on the power play, Xhekaj is also in the box for two minutes. “Abuse of officials” is the call.
- The four-on-four ends with a 14th shot for Montreal, to Tampa Bay’s seven.
- Hagel and Slafkovský drop their gloves as the top two goal-scorers in the series go at it. Hagel lands the biggest blow, but Slafkovský pops back up to give one final shot.
- Back on the ice, Xhekaj tosses Gourde to the ice behind Montreal’s net.
- Phillip Danault jumps on a rebound off Vasilevskiy, but pounds the puck off the end boards.
- Kucherov faking a slapshot at a linesman after an offside call is probably more abusive than whatever Xhekaj did.
- Kucherov dives for a puck and Guhle’s stick comes in while he’s in mid-air. Guhle is called for hooking.
- Darren Raddysh falls to the ice as Danault gives his a push Danault lays his stick on the back of Raddysh again to show the ref how light the contact was, and Raddysh crumples again.
- Dobeš is flexing his knee after making a save.
- The Lightning are really cheating now trying for stretch passes.
- They’re not doing so much post-whistle stuff, though. That plan wasn’t working.
- Montreal’s fourth line goes to work deep in the offensive zone, and it’s Anderson capitalizes. No one can stay with him and he slides across the top of the crease, and sends the puck under Vasilevskiy’s arm to give Montreal a late lead.
- The top line comes out after the goal and comes close to converting a four-way passing play. Ryan McDonagh goes over to Caufield and shoves his head into the glass with both hands. Montreal, which has been running circles around the Lightning for about 10 minutes, goes to a five-on-four.
- There will be 1:20 left on the power play for Montreal to begin the final period.
Second intermission
- Will there be a group of people getting together to give Montreal a penalty to begin the third?
Third period
- The Lightning don’t like the way Montreal is getting set up in the zone with Caufield in the bumper spot, so Emil Lilleberg just knocks the net off. No penalty.
- Hey, the Canadiens survived Danault having a broken stick in the defensive zone.
- Corey Perry definitely heard the whistle go for offside considering how quiet the arena is right now, but continues on to skate through Dobeš’s crease, earning a shove from the netminder.
- J.J. Moser catches the Canadiens playing too deep in their coverage, but his shot from the hashmarks goes off Guhle and then the post.
- Ivan Demidov is called for tripping, and the Lightning will get a third power play of the game.
- The penalty kill holds its structure and fairly easily kills the minor.
- Ten minutes to go.
- The Canadiens were in control, but Slafkovský turned and made a blind pass trying to get the puck out of his zone. It’s turned over, and the Lightning are brought back into the game on a Kucherov wraparound goal.
- You just can’t make that play in that situation, but if there’s a player capable of making up for an error, it’s the man with a hat trick in this series.
- The shots have been evened up as the Canadiens have been playing pretty passively since the goal was surrendered. Not overly dangerous shots from the Lightning, but they’re closer to scoring a third goal than Montreal right now.
- Anderson is skating backward in the neutral zone to front a rush and Sabourin lays him out with a hit in his back. The call on the ice is a five-minute major for interference since Anderson was injured on the play. It’s reduced to a minor, but it’s still a late power play for Montreal.
- Hutson fires a shot off the bottom of Vasilevskiy’s arm, off his pad, and then off the post. No luck for Montreal at all.
- The penalty is killed, and the Lightning will carry some momentum into overtime off the kill.
Overtime
- The Lightning have more of the possession in the opening minutes.
- I don’t like how loose Montreal’s coverage has been to start here. As many open looks for the Lightning already as in the first 60 minutes.
- Hutson stick disintegrates as he accepts a D-to-D pass in his zone, and the Lightning spend a shift in Montreal’s zone. Hutson does well to play man-on-man at the top of the zone and eventually get a whistle.
- All Lightning in the opening six minutes.
- Montreal is getting nothing going in this period, unable to make a play.
- The Canadiens get a break with a Lightning icing to give them an offensive-zone faceoff.
- Dobeš makes a huge save on Dominic James to keep the Habs in it.
- Montreal is way too passive, just backing off and letting the Lightning come in the zone.
- Anderson knocks J.J. Moser down after an offside was called, and that was completely unnecessary. He’s lucky that wasn’t a penalty.
- They will clean Montreal’s half of the ice at the midpoint of the overtime period. A shockingly one-sided affair so far.
- Moser scores on the ninth shot of an overtime period the Canadiens just weren’t in at all. A shocking development considering how the first six periods were played.
- It’s good that the Canadiens take a win home with them to Montreal, but that overtime was very concerning if the Lightning learn how to replicate that. Game 3 goes Friday night in Montreal.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) He’s loving all the attention
2) Not many players worse
1) Just needed a bit of luck at the end of regulation to add another
