The Lightning finally managed to reverse the two troubling trends that had plagued them in recent playoff years. They won a game at home, and they won a game in overtime. J.J. Moser’s OT tally allowed the Lightning to even the series as the teams head to Montreal for Game Three on Friday.
This was a tale of two games. During the first 40 minutes, the Canadiens had the upper hand. They played quicker than the Lightning, and as a result, they generated a high volume of Grade-A scoring chances. Fortunately for the Lightning, Andrei Vasilevsky gave them crucial saves. The Habs also narrowly missed connecting on other dangerous looks.
The first 25 minutes also featured lots of rough play between the teams. After Brandon Hagel fought Juraj Slafkovsky at 5:14 of the second, however, things settled down for the rest of the night.
Hagel ended up recording the first-ever playoff Gordie Howe Hat Trick in Lightning franchise history (goal, assist, and fight). His goal, at 8:40 of the first, opened the scoring. Following a Montreal icing, the Lightning won the ensuing faceoff. Hagel collected the puck at the right circle and peeled to the middle. Kaiden Guhle blocked his initial shot (Guhle was without a stick, having broken it), but the puck came back to Hagel. He fired a second shot from the top of the left circle that beat a screened Jakub Dobes.
Following one of those post-whistle scrums, the Canadiens received a power play and tied the game. After spending much of the man advantage applying pressure, the Habs’ top unit converted. Lane Hutson’s point shot deflected off Erik Cernak into the net at 16:11. At that point, the Canadiens had scored goals on each of their past four power-play chances in the series. Critically, though, the Lightning killed the next three in the game.
In the second period, the Canadiens continued to lean on the Lightning, who struggled to execute defensive-zone clears. Eventually, Montreal grabbed the lead. After Jake Evans won a puck battle behind the Lightning net, he fed Phillip Danault, who set up Josh Anderson for a point-blank chance in the low slot. Anderson’s second goal of the series made it 2-1 at 18:36.
Although the stats looked fairly close through 40 minutes (shots were 21-17 for Montreal and attempts were 43-41 for the Lightning), the game hadn’t been. The Lightning were fortunate to be down by only one goal.
But they turned the game around in the third period. First, the Lightning had to kill the remaining 80 seconds on a penalty they carried into the third. Once back at even strength, they started playing with the puck more in the offensive zone. This coincided with Jon Cooper mixing up his forward line combinations. Nikita Kucherov joined Anthony Cirelli and Hagel; Nick Paul went on a line with Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel; Yanni Gourde centered Gage Goncalves and Dominic James; and Zemgus Girgensons played with Corey Perry and Scott Sabourin. The new lines all jived well, and as the period progressed, the Lightning gained more momentum. A Montreal turnover yielded the tying goal. Moser pressured Slafkovsky inside the Montreal blue line, and Slafkovsky slid the puck weakly up the middle. Hagel intercepted it and took a shot from the high slot. It went wide of the net, but Kucherov collected the rebound and scored on a wrap-around at 12:33.
Montreal won Game One with a power-play goal after the Lightning took a late third-period penalty. The Habs had a chance to do it again when the Lightning had to kill a penalty with 2:15 left in the third. But the Lightning navigated through it, aided by a Vasilevskiy save on Hutson late in the PP that also nicked off the post. The Lightning survived the kill and forced overtime.
They dominated play in the OT. Over 12:48 of extra time, the Lightning outshot Montreal, 9-0. Attempts were 17-2 in favor of Tampa Bay. Dobes made several key saves, including a point-blank stop on James. But as was the case on the first Lightning goal, a Montreal icing proved to be costly for the Canadiens. Cirelli won the ensuing faceoff from Alex Newhook, and Moser skated from the left side of the ice to the right circle before snapping a shot past Dobes’ glove to win the game.
After swimming upstream for 40 minutes, the Lightning reversed momentum and controlled the third period and overtime. This helped them rally and tie the series.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Phil Esposito):
- J.J. Moser — Lightning. GWG.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy — Lightning. 33 saves.
- Jakub Dobes — Canadiens. 35 saves.
