The Tampa Bay Lightning played their best game of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sunday night, but it wasn’t enough to stave off elimination in a 2-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Benchmark International Arena.
The Canadiens scored on a pair of bad bounces against Tampa Bay despite being held to nine shots on goal, and goalie Jakub Dobes stopped 28 of 29 shots for a Game 7 and First Round series win.
Tampa Bay was the better team for nearly all 60 minutes, but that doesn't change the final result.
“I don’t really have words,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “You like a lot about the game. From start to finish we stuck with our process and our plan, and in the end it doesn’t matter because they had two, we had one, so it’s a loss.”
The first period saw both teams earn scoring chances, and it was Montreal who buried the first goal despite being held to four shots on goal.
Montreal captain Nick Suzuki’s first goal of the series made it 1-0 Montreal in the closing minutes of the first period. Suzuki redirected a shot from the point, which then bounced into the Tampa Bay net off of a Lightning player with 1:21 to play in the period.
The Lightning got the tying goal from rookie Dominic James, his second of the series, thanks to a power-play redirection of Charle-Edouard D’Astous' point shot with 6:33 left in the second period.
The Lightning then outshot the Canadiens 12-0 in the middle frame, becoming the first team in NHL history to hold their opponent without a shot on goal in any period of a Game 7. Tampa Bay finished the night with 29 shots on goal, more than Montreal’s 27 total shot attempts in the game.
In the end, it didn’t matter—the Lightning held Montreal to nine total shots on goal, but two pucks found the back of the net.
"You sit back here, obviously you're upset. It sucks, but like, there's not much more you can do,” Brandon Hagel said. “You give up zero shots in the second period, five shots in the third period, and you lose a hockey game. Like, you can't look at one guy in the room and say you didn't do your thing, Yeah, I guess we didn't score more goals, obviously. It's a tough feeling, but that's the reality of hockey. It's game 7. You lose, you're out.”
The game-winning goal came in the 11th minute of the third period.
Alex Newhook batted the puck out of midair from below the goal line near the left post, and the puck took a bad bounce off the back of goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it 2-1.
The unlucky bounces count all the same on the scoreboard.
“That's when you're at the end of the game and you're just sitting there saying, 'The hockey gods have been in my corner many, many times, and tonight they're in the other corner.' That's what happens,” coach Jon Cooper said….”It's not the movies. It's not something where you can retake it and get the scene right. It's live theater right there in front of you, and you never know what's gonna happen. That's why it's unbelievable to be a part of something like this, but it damn well stings when you're on the wrong side of it."
The season is over for Tampa Bay in the first round of the postseason despite posting one of the best regular seasons in franchise history.
Sunday was a harsh ending to a season that the Lightning weren’t ready to end.
"I have zero complaints about any team I've ever coached for the Tampa Bay Lightning, but this team was different. It was different,” Cooper said.
“They deserve better than what has happened to them, and it's too bad because of how hard they worked and committed and just did everything we asked...They just went out wearing their heart on their sleeve and gave everything they possibly could, and we just came up short. But it says a lot about the team and a lot of the players who are here."
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Jakub Dobes, MTL (28 SVs)
- Alex Newhook, MTL (GWG)
- Dominic James, TBL (Goal)
