Over the final month of the 2025-26 regular season, the Tampa Bay Lightning power play was searching for more offense.
Despite that unit scoring a pair of goals on Sunday, a rush of their own penalties and three power-play goals allowed was too much for the Lightning to overcome in a 4-3 overtime loss that opened their First Round Stanley Cup Playoffs matchup against the Montreal Canadiens.
Montreal forward Juraj Slafkovsky recorded a hat-trick, with his third power-play goal of the night being the winning tally 1 minute, 22 seconds into overtime.
“That was a game that we just gave them an opportunity to win, and this is the Stanley Cup Playoffs,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “This isn’t game 62, so that is extremely disappointing in the way we conducted ourselves and the amount of penalties we took…You can’t let that happen, so that’s on us. There’s no excuses.”
Montreal opened the scoring at Benchmark International Arena at even strength with 6:36 to play in the first period. A pass from behind the net found an open Anderson in the slot, where he scored on a shot for a 1-0 Canadiens lead.
Two Lightning goals in a span of 29 seconds during the second period continued the offense on Sunday with the help of the power play. The teams combined to score five power-play goals.
After Bolts defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous was forced to leave the game and didn’t return following a hit and charging penalty by Josh Anderson in the second period, his teammates made good on the power play. Darren Raddysh sent a screaming one-timer from atop the left circle to beat Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes inside the left goalpost with 7:45 left in the frame.
Just 29 seconds later, Tampa Bay took its first lead of the postseason. Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson fumbled the puck behind his own net, and it slipped to Bolts forward Brandon Hagel in the slot. The latter quickly moved the puck to his backhand and snapped the 2-1 goal under Dobes’ glove.
“We’ve just got to build. Then we get into penalty trouble and it goes the other way. There’s a lot of ups and downs, and you’ve just got to go out there and continue to play hockey,” Hagel said of taking a lead and gaining momentum…"There’s going to be so many ups and downs in a series, in a game, so you’ve got to always have that emotion…I didn’t hate what we did a little bit 5-on-5, you can take some positives. But at the end of the day, we know what we’ve got to do better and that’s just Game 1."
The other bench found some momentum of their own on the man advantage—forward Juraj Slafkovsky’s one-timer in the right circle with less than 24 seconds left in the middle frame resulted in the tying power-play goal.
It was Slafkovsky who then handed the Canadiens a 3-2 lead, this time finishing a tic-tac-toe passing play in front of the Lightning net 5:56 into the third period on another Montreal power play.
Hagel evened the score three minutes later on yet another power-play goal when he tapped home a Jake Guentzel pass after winning a battle in the blue paint. Despite some late chances for both teams, regulation ended in a 3-3 tie.
Tampa Bay collected 14 penalty minutes in the loss while allowing the trio of power-play goals to Slafkovsky, which culminated in the 4-3 goal 1:22 into the extra period after a high-sticking penalty late in the third period carried a power play into overtime.
Slafkovsky’s winner was a snapshot from the left dot after Nick Suzuki entered the zone and dished to Hutson, who then found Slafkovsky.
Multiple Bolts said postgame that the nature of their penalties were the deeper issue than total penalty minutes—Tampa Bay was called once for too many men on the ice and was dinged for three stick infractions.
“We’re a pretty accountable group here, and the type of penalties we took tonight are pretty much unacceptable,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “I think a handful of them in the offensive zone, 200 feet away from our net. If it’s a good penalty that’s one thing, but I don’t think any of them tonight were good. That’s not great on our part.”
He wasn’t alone in that thinking. Hagel pointed to the oft-steady penalty kill, which finished 2-for-5 while allowing 10 shots on goal during Montreal power plays on Sunday.
“A lot of those penalties were definitely avoidable, but at the same time we’ve got to be better on the penalty kill,” Hagel said. “I think we can take some positives out of tonight, but at the same time we need to have a little but more urgency and I think we’ll be okay.”
Guentzel led the team on offense by assisting on all three Lightning goals, while Hagel and Kucherov each had a pair of points. Kucherov’s first assist marked the 172nd playoff point in his career to pass Peter Forsberg for 20th in career Stanley Cup Playoffs scoring.
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 15 saves, including stops on eight of nine shots at even strength.
There was no mincing words postgame Sunday with the Lightning disappointed in their play on special teams and the ensuing final result.
“Game 1s are Game 1s. I’ve been part of series where we’ve won them and lost the series, lost them and won the series and everything in between. That isn’t as much a concern as how we lost it. And so, if that’s gonna be the way we keep going, this series may not go as long as we thought,” Cooper said.
“Now, do I think we’ve got better in us? I do. There’s some good things to be taken from tonight, but ultimately we’re down 1-0 and now we’ve got to win four of the next six. There’s been taller tasks. Gosh, I’ve been in series where we’ve lost the first two and come back to win. This is by no means do-or-die or anything, but sitting here 15 minutes after the game, you’re a little ticked off.”
Tampa Bay gets a quick chance at redemption with Game 2 set for 7 p.m. this Tuesday back at Benchmark International Arena.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
1. Juraj Slafkovsky, MTL (Hat-trick)
2. Brandon Hagel, TBL (2 Goals)
3. Nick Suzuki, MTL (2 Assists)
