Andrei Vasilevskiy did everything he could on Friday night.
The Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender denied a trio of breakaway looks for the Montreal Canadiens and halted numerous other quality chances at the Bell Centre during Game 3 of a Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round matchup.
Despite the goaltender’s best efforts and after getting his team to overtime, the Canadiens still took a series lead by burying the game-winning goal 2:09 into the extra period for a 3-2 win.
The Canadiens now lead the series 2-1.
"We're three games in now. I think we've got a pretty good feel for each other, we have a pretty good feel for what the environment's like in this building,” coach Jon Cooper said Friday night. “But our execution has to be, we have to elevate now.”
The teams have required overtime in each of the first three games this series, marking the first time in franchise history that a Lightning team has started a playoff series with three straight overtime finishes.
The Canadiens got their home fans into the game before the fifth minute of play with Alexandre Texier’s 1-0 goal. The forward accepted a pass as the trailing forward in the offensive zone and scored on a shot from the left circle 4:43 into play.
Brayden Point evened things up for the visitors with a power-play goal 7:42 into the game. Point accepted a pass in the right circle and snapped his shot inside the left goalpost for his first goal of the postseason.
Brandon Hagel kept his run of offense going for Tampa Bay’s first lead of the night—Hagel knocked down a neutral zone chip by Montreal forward Jake Evans, rushed into the left side of the zone, changed the angle of his shot and fired it through goalie Jakub Dobes to make it 2-1 just under five minutes into the second period.
Hagel has now scored in all three games against Montreal, making him the fourth player in Bolts history to score in three consecutive games to open a series.
The Canadiens went on to find the tying marker off the stick of Kirby Dach, whose shot from the right circle slipped through a screen and ricocheted off of a Lightning player and into the net for a 2-2 game in the second period.
Neither team scored in the third period, and Vasilevskiy remained central in earning bonus hockey for his team. He stopped breakaway chances for Canadiens forwards Josh Anderson, Ivan Demidov and Cole Caufield among his 21 saves over the second and third periods.
Montreal then ended the night with defenseman Lane Hutson’s windup from the point 2:09 into overtime.
The Lightning weren’t shy about saying they need to be better in Game 4.
"We weren't as sharp as we needed to be, for sure,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “Gave them breakaways and odd-mans, we haven't done a lot of that in this series, but tonight it certainly got away from us defensively. And hats off to Vasy, he gave us a chance there in overtime, but ultimately, I think the right team won tonight, and that's on us.”
Friday marked the first time in franchise history that a Lightning team has played overtime in three straight games to open a playoff series. The team was honest postgame about the end result.
"They shot, and I think that's the difference between what's happened with Montreal and us. I thought we passed up way too many opportunities that we had to be able to generate some things,” Cooper said. "Give Dach and that line credit. They had opportunities and they shot them, and they went in the net. You can tic-tac your way down the ice all you want, but at some point you've got to shoot it in the net and that definitely was not on our agenda for some of our night.”
Vasilevskiy finished the night with 26 saves. Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel each had an assist on the goal from Point, whose power-play marker was his first goal of the series.
The team will turn its attention to Game 4, set for 7 p.m. Sunday.
"We're definitely still in the series, but the next one's so important,” Point said. “We know we can be better. We've got to learn from our mistakes here tonight, and we've got to show better next game.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Lane Hutson, MTL (OT GWG)
- Kirby Dach, MTL (Goal, Assist)
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (26 SVs)
