Canadiens will 'stick to our system' in Game 5 coming off lost opportunity

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens lost a two-goal lead, their composure and a huge opportunity to gain the upper hand against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

They had a day off Monday to reset and regroup for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; The Spot, SN, TVAS, CBC) after a 3-2 loss in Game 4 at Bell Centre on Sunday that tied the best-of-7 series. 

After the Canadiens scored twice in the second period to go ahead 2-0, the first multigoal lead of the series, the Lightning rallied with three unanswered, including the tying and winning goals from Brandon Hagel in the third.

"We'll turn the page and try to focus on the next game and controlling our emotions," Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier said. "We have veterans on the bench who can help calm things down if any of the younger guys get carried away by the crowd or the refereeing. 

"Whatever the case, we are going to stick to our system, our style of play that works, and not get distracted by our emotions. We're managing it well so far. It's sports so that's going to happen, but we have to limit that and keep up our pace and stick to our game."

Montreal forward Alex Newhook won the Stanley Cup in 2022 as a rookie with the Colorado Avalanche.

"I don't think there's really one thing that works more than it did in the regular season," he said. "With the details and all the attention to checking and defending, I think it just makes everything a little bit harder in the playoffs to execute and to generate, so I don't think there's really one thing that's different in the regular season. It just elevates your need to execute at a high level."

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis made two observations about Hagel's second goal that broke a 2-2 tie with 4:53 remaining in the third after the first three games were decided in overtime. The Lightning forward got credit for his sixth goal of the series when Nikita Kucherov quickly threw a puck on net from the right boards that went in off Hagel in front.

"There's nothing fancy about that play," St. Louis said. "As electric as 'Kuch' can be, he's got some simplicity in his game too. If you give him that he'll take it, and he just whips it there, so for us we just have to be more alert and aware that this could be possible. But we probably have to have some simplicity in our game in throwing pucks in there as well when we have some space, create some chaos."

Texier echoed the need to keep things simple in certain situations.

"When play tightens up, especially late in the game when it gets really tight, we have to work on their defensemen more, try to put them in danger," he said. Whether it's us or them, I think things really tighten up in the neutral zone in the third period, especially in the neutral zone. 

"So, I think that's when we need to get behind their defense and try not to be so cute. That's what we're going to try to do in Tampa is to wear them down a bit. We've shown that we can do that, so we've got to get going with that."