First period
- Montreal begins the game with a shot off the post. Consider the defensive wall breached, at least for the moment.
- A few more shots get through to Matt Tomkins in the opening couple of minutes. It’s a good start for the home team.
- A characteristically strong shift for the second line leads to a nice passing play from Alex Newhook to Brendan Gallagher for a shot, and Joel Armia bats the puck in out of the air.
- Nikita Kucherov crunches Kaiden Guhle into the boards from behind as the defenceman is twisted around to make a pass, and Guhle stays down on the ice shaking his head. He’s off to the dressing room to undergo the concussion protocol.
- Just imagining the punishment if the players were in the opposite situation on that one.
- Jayden Struble throws Anthony Cirelli into the net. That should count as another goal, he’s a lot bigger than a puck.
- In the end, Alex Newhook gets an extra minor for trying to keep Steven Stamkos away from Cayden Primeau.
- Armia just killed 10 seconds off the clock with his play along the boards. He gets a loud ovation for his excellent start.
- But Nick Paul starts the scoring after having a rebound bounce off his body and to the side of the net where his momentum was carrying him for an easy tap in.
- Montreal will be on the power play after a cross-check from Calvin de Haan.
- The first unit comes very close to scoring after Newhook drives right to the crease. He didn’t appreciate watching the tying goal from the penalty box.
- Rafaël Harvey-Pinard is taking a beating in this game. He drew the cross-check, and he’s right back at the top of the crease looking to do it again.
- Juraj Slafkovský fell a bit awkwardly into the end boards, but he popped right back up.
- Newhook is finding a lot of success just driving right down the middle of the offensive zone. The Lightning are backing off, and that’s opening up Brendan Gallagher and Armia for passes.
- Despite the constant Habs pressure, a two-on-one materializes out of nowhere for the Lightning. Jayden Struble isn’t expecting the burst of speed from Mikey Eyssimont that gets the forward in and across the top of the crease for the 2-1 goal.
- A rebound from a Caufield shot ends up in Slafkovský’s feet instead of on his stick. No luck on that occasion.
- Tampa Bay looked dangerous for about four seconds in that period, and used that time to score two goals.
Second period
- Guhle didn’t come out with his teammates to begin the period. It looks like Montreal will be playing with five defencemen for the rest of this game.
- The period begins with a rugby scrum at the top of Tampa Bay’s crease. Brendan Gallagher is the one at the bottom of the pile.
- Now Jake Evans gets run into the boards from behind and needs a second to collect himself. The refs must be too busy watching for stick slashes and one-handed hooks.
- Tampa Bay just spent about three minutes in Montreal’s zone, their first real extended pressure of the night.
- The second line gets the next shift to shift the momentum, and it does more than that as Armia scores his second of the game.
- Another one of those two-second breakdowns leaves Stamkos completely open 12 feet from the net for a one-timer, and Primeau had no chance.
- An attempted breakout pass goes off a skate and ends up on the stick of Paul. He spins in the slot and fires a shot past the glove of Primeau and off the post and in.
- Matheson gets called for trip as his stick blade scrapes across the toe of Brayden Point’s skate and the forward goes down.
- Just as Matheson exits the box, the Lightning make it 5-2 on a Brandon Hagel shot that went up off Primeau’s blocker and fell into the net.
- Armia and Gallagher collide deep in the offensive zone. We’re having that kind of game.
- Matheson is back in the box on another tripping call. I don’t think he even touched Kucherov’s feet, Kucherov just went down when the puck was poked away and suckered the ref into a call.
- Kucherov scores on an open one-timer as three Habs engage in a board battle.
- Montreal has announced that Guhle won’t be back in this game.
- Victor Hedman has a bit of blood trickling out of his nose, so we’ve stopped the game to see how that happened. We wouldn’t want anyone to go unpunished for injuring a player.
- Despite their luck and help from the officials, Tampa Bay was still by far the better team in that period and deserved to have a lead. They outshot Montreal 22-6.
Third period
- The only thing left to do in this game is finish off Armia’s hat trick and get Suzuki a goal or two.
- First they have to kill off three-and-a-half minutes of this high-sticking penalty.
- Primeau is back out of the third period. There is a back-to-back this weekend and Montreal needs both goaltenders. Hopefully he can restore a bit of confidence in these 20 minutes.
- Montreal gets a power play as Slafkovský is tripped. A chance to get one of those goals.
- Slafkovský threw his head back after missing a chance, while laying on the ice. Kind of looked like a video game character dying.
- Arber Xhekaj slaps both the puck and half of Suzuki’s broken stick at the net, and Slafkovský deflects it in. I think Suzuki should get a point for that.
- Armia comes very close to getting his hat trick. A “Go Habs Go!” chant begins. The comeback is on.
- Now Suzuki gets a point by setting up a Caufield goal. Good work from Slafkovský to start that passing play as well.
- Now a goal for Suzuki and Armia each, and this game is tied.
- Stamkos tries to join the rush and ends up wiping out Hagel with a head hit. Eyssimont must not have seen what happened and went after Xhekaj, and that will be a Habs power play.
- The crowd is really into this game now. Montreal came close to scoring several times on that power play.
- Slafkovský has gone to the room.
- And returned.
- Montreal pulls Primeau with five minutes to go.
- Lots of great scoring chances, but no goals.
- Slafkovský slams his stick off the post as Stamkos hits the empty net. You have to admire the passion.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Sometimes man-to-man coverage isn’t the answer
1) No way you can trade him now
1) If only Steven Stamkos still played on his line
