- Montreal is 2-1 when this woman sings O, Canada, so I’m actually starting to like her a bit.
First period
- Lane Hutson deals with an early shift from Nikita Kucherov’s line by stripping the puck and turning it the other way.
- Montreal’s first chance comes from the Kirby Dach line after two Lightning defenders went after Josh Anderson in the end wall.
- Darren Raddysh was standing in the crease trying to check Nick Suzuki at the side of the net, and a shot from Mike Matheson hits him in the him, but doesn’t deflect in.
- Juraj Slafkovský completes a toe-drag and fires a hard shot off the post.
- The crowd is alive after Matheson couldn’t decide what to do with a puck on the boards and just flipped it in the general direction of partner Alexandre Carrier. Tampa Bay got three scoring chances off the turnover.
- Dobson blasts a shot that pops loudly off the blocker of Andrei Vasilevskiy and out. It may have hurt to launch it, but it was powerful.
- The Lightning get a two-on-one as Kaiden Guhle is too aggressive on his pinch and complete the pass as Gage Goncalves cuts across the front of Jakub Dobeš, but somehow the goalie turned a very dangerous situation into what looked like an easy save getting square to the shot.
- Carrier gets two shots from the low slot but Vasilevskiy denies both.
- Josh Anderson uses his speed to get to the puck on the boards and get it to Kaiden Guhle at the point. Guhle’s shot is tipped in the slot by Nick Suzuki, and goes off the leg of J.J. Moser and in the net. Finally, the Canadiens get a shot to bounce off something and into the net.
- We saw something similar from the captain in the Olympic semifinals as well. Never count him out with elimination on the line.
- Now to keep the offensive pressure on.
- The horn sounds, and the Canadiens take a 1-0 lead into the intermission.
- I think it’s fair to say that Dobeš was the best player in that period after dealing with a couple of high-danger situations very calmly. Tampa Bay was probably the better team in that period, but Montreal settled in and looked better to end it.
Second period
- A flurry of chances from the Lightning to begin the second period, including two shots from the slot by Oliver Bjorkstrand.
- Montreal is giving the Lightning players too much space to work with and make a play in the opening minutes.
- Matheson cross-checks a man on Guhle’s side of the ice and will take the first penalty of the game.
- Dobeš didn’t quite follow the puck on the way across the ice to Darren Raddysh, but his feet were faster than his eyes in sealing off the post to stop the puck.
- At the end of the penalty kill, the Canadiens get the puck past Kucherov at the blue line, and Alex Newhook goes one-on-one with Brayden Point. Newhook pulls the puck around, and then gets hauled down to give Montreal a power play chance.
- No shots on the power play, but at least Montreal got to play in the offensive zone a bit. They can’t just sit back and play in their own end for these final two periods and expect to win.
- The latest dangerous Lightning chance is the result of Dobson trying to skate the puck through a stationary Brandon Hagel rather than around him.
- The Canadiens need to change the way they’re playing right now. They’re just waiting for the game to be tied at this point. Shots 9-0 Tampa Bay in this period. They need to take some control back.
- Montreal finally gets the puck up to the offensive blue line, but Guhle ends up taking a holding penalty trying to facilitate an entry.
- The Lightning tie the game on the 11th shot they’ve had since Montreal’s last one: Suzuki’s tip in the opening period. Dominic James is left free to tip the puck at the side of the net, and ties things up on the power play.
- Tampa Bay gets caught with six skaters in the offensive zone. The Canadiens need to make something happen on this power play.
- No shots on the power play. An opportunity they couldn’t afford to squander.
- The period ends with zero shots from Montreal. They played scared of losing their lead, and now they don’t have one for the third.
Third period
- They’re already more aggressive than they were at any point in the second period, so it seems the second-period reset was effective.
- Still no shots through five minutes, but also none for the Lightning, and the puck has been in Tampa Bay’s end more.
- Goncalves gets a shot as Dobson tries to play the puck off the wall and has it go to the slot. Dobeš bails out his defenceman.
- At 5:36, Suzuki gets Montreal’s first shot since his goal was scored.
- Montreal’s best shift of the game comes after a great play by Dobson in his zone to get the puck up to a forward and then he and Caufield go to work in the offensive zone. That should inspire the team: they can create offence.
- The inspiration carries to the next shift. Vasilevskiy makes the save on a shot from Hutson at the point, but Newhook banks it out of mid-air off the back of the goaltender to give the Canadiens a 2-1 lead.
- Now they have to keep playing for the final nine minutes. Tampa Bay has had very little going all period long.
- No, not the flips out to centre ice while under no pressure in your zone. Make a play.
- Texier has a chance to go down the ice on a rush after chipping the puck out, but Kucherov just grabs on and doesn’t let him get away. He knows he’s not going to get called for it.
- Slafkovský’s stick break on a rush with Suzuki. It would be a Canadiens playoff game without a stick in pieces on the ice.
- Four minutes left on the clock.
- Three minutes to play.
- That stick Slafkovský broke? It just slowed down the puck to prevent an icing.
- The Lightning call their timeout with 2:12 on the clock. Vasilevskiy stays on the bench.
- The puck gets along the wall. The refs have waited about 20 seconds for the players to free it all night, but that time they blow the whistle after about five seconds to give the Lightning more time to find a goal. Not even subtle.
- Last minute of play.
- Slafkovský thinks he’s free for the empty-netter, but Hagel makes an amazing road hockey stick save.
- Now 15.3 seconds to play, withe puck outside Montreal’s blue line.
- Matheson sends the puck over the glass on an attempted clear, and the Lightning go to the power play with 6.3 seconds left.
- Maybe one faceoff win away from the second round.
- Suzuki makes one last shot block on a point shot, and the Canadiens are moving on!
- They will have a quick celebration of this win, then head to Buffalo to play the Sabres on Wednesday.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Love to see it
2) The Conn Smythe is a better trophy anyway
1) And so they did
