Game 4 Live Blog: Canadiens vs. Lightning

Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final is in the books and the Canadiens are not done yet,
winning 3-2 in overtime
.
Shawn P. Roarke was in Bell Centre for all the action. Here is his live blog from Game 4.

11:07 p.m.

Montreal lives to see another day, winning at 3:57 of overtime on a gutsy second-effort goal by Josh Anderson, who slammed home the rebound of a shot by Cole Caufield.

Anderson, who scored the game-opening goal, started the play with a rush past defenseman Jan Rutta and a soft shot. Caulfield tried to bang home the rebound but instead generated another rebound that Anderson converted while falling over.
The roof is coming off the Bell Centre as the Canadiens force a Game 5 with a 3-2 victory. The game will be Wednesday in Tampa Bay.
See you there. Please Join me again for another thrilling night of hockey action!

11:00 p.m.

Is there better drama than a clinching game in the Stanley Cup Final going into OT?
The answer is no.
The fans here at the Bell Centre know this as they get ready for overtime with the Canadiens and Lightning tied 2-2. They were partying like crazy, singing and dancing during intermission, before going back to biting their nails when the action resumes.
Part of the reason for the stress is that the Canadiens will be on the penalty kill for the first 2:59 of overtime. Captain Shea Weber, their most important defenseman, is serving a double minor for high-sticking Ondrej Palat.
We will have a chance of seeing the first overtime Cup-clinching goal since defenseman Alec Martinez scored at 14:43 of double overtime in Game 5 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final to give the Los Angeles Kings a 3-2 victory.
It could also be the first sweep secured in overtime since Uwe Krupp of the Colorado Avalanche won the 1996 Stanley Cup Final with his goal against the Florida Panthers.
Buckle up and let's go!

10:45 p.m.

Overtime is on the docket at the Bell Centre with the game tied at 2-2 after regulation.
The Canadiens will have their work cut out in overtime. Defenseman Shea Weber is in the penalty box, serving the final 2:59 of a double minor for high-sticking Tampa forward Ondrej Palat.
Tampa Bay leads 29-19 in shots on goal.
Montreal's Alexander Romanov and Tampa Bay's Patrick Maroon traded goals in the third period after Josh Anderson of the Canadiens and Barclay Goodrow of Tampa Bay scored earlier.
For Maroon, who is looking to win the Cup for the third straight season, it was his first goal in 17 Stanley Cup Playoff games. It was made possible by a sweet pass from Mathieu Joseph, who has points in two of the three games he has played in place of forward Alex Killorn.

10:35 p.m.

Silence has descended upon the Bell Center with 6:12 left in the third period. Tampa Bay forward Pat Maroon scored an easy one-timer to make it 2-2.
Maroon, who has won the Stanley Cup in each of the past two seasons, scored his second goal of the postseason off a perfect pass from linemate Mathieu Joseph.
The stunned silence did not last long however, the crowd coming back to life and willing the Canadiens to find a third lead in this back-and-forth game.
Cole Caufield had an excellent chance with 4:39 remaining but Andrei Vasilevskiy turned it away with his glove.

10:30 p.m.

Montreal has a 2-1 lead at 8:27 of the third period. Defenseman Alexander Romanov, playing in his first game of the Final, scored the go-ahead goal with a point shot past screened goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
After not leading at all in the first three games of the series, Montreal has its second lead of Game 4.
One of the reasons Montreal finds itself in a position to win is because Carey Price has played like the goalie who was at least co-favorite to win the Conn Smythe Trophy when this round started.
He has stopped 25 of 26 shots so far and none bigger than a quick one-timer by the ever-dangerous Nikita Kucherov in the opening minutes of the third period. Price has been compact and confident in his movements, a far cry from the goalie who allowed 12 goals in the first three games.
The crowd at the Bell Centre is showering him with love each time he makes a save, often jumping up in a towel-waving ceremony, followed by chants of "Go Habs Go!"
There is a belief taking hold in the stands -- and on the ice -- that there is a route to victory for the home team in Game 4. They have 10 minutes -- or maybe longer -- to find it.

10:10 p.m.

What drama we have here. A potential clinching game for Tampa Bay and a win-or-go-home affair for the upstart Canadiens and we enter the third period at 1-1.
What more can we as hockey fans ask for?
The Canadiens still have a chance to extend this series if they win the third period. In the process, they would prevent the Lightning from celebrating a Cup triumph at the Bell Centre.
The 1989 Calgary Flames are the only visiting team to win the Stanley Cup against the Canadiens on Montreal ice, doing it at the Montreal Forum, the predecessor to this building. The Canadiens are hoping to keep that number at one, while Tampa Bay is looking to join an elite list.
I mentioned earlier that forward Nick Suzuki has been the most effective forward for the Canadiens and his pass to set up their goal in the first period was a work of art. It also put him in the record book of the NHL's most iconic franchise.
At 21 years, 329 days, Suzuki is the youngest player in Canadiens history to record a point in three straight games during a Stanley Cup Final. Pierre Mondou (three games) and Maurice Richard (four games) are the only other players to get a point in at least three games before turning 23.
Here we go for what could possibly be the final period of hockey of the 2020-21 NHL season. Are you ready? The fans at Bell Centre most certainly are!

9:50 p.m.

Montreal was fully dictating play until defenseman Ryan McDonagh, pinching deep into the attacking zone, made a brilliant play with a no-look pass into the slot that Barclay Goodrow was able to slam home to tie the game at 1-1 at 17:20. It remains tied heading into the second intermission.
The second period was mostly one-way traffic as Montreal dominated until a late-period goal, the exact opposite of how the first period played out.

Montreal defenseman Shea Weber was a wrecking ball out there. He plastered Point against the wall once and just missed another huge hit on him in the second half of the period.
The captain is setting the tone physically, but he has plenty of company. Weber is one of four Canadiens to have at least three hits and, as a team, Montreal has 27 hits through two periods. Point and Kucherov have been among the primary targets.
But it is not a one-way street as Tampa Bay is giving as good as it gets. Goodrow leads them with five hits and Tampa Bay has 30 hits.
The DJ sent the teams off with the Beastie Boys hit "Fight For Your Right." And that is exactly what the third period will be, a fight for the right for Tampa Bay to party with the Cup for a second straight season or for Montreal to play a Game 5.

9:35 p.m.

The Canadiens are playing the brand of hockey now that delivered them to the Final, grabbing a lead and then suffocating the opponent with a disciplined defensive game and opportunistic forays into the offensive zone.
They are stronger on the forecheck, tighter in their neutral-zone play and more organized in the defensive zone than they have been at any point in the series.
They have allowed Tampa Bay three shots in the first 10 minutes of the period.
Yet, with all that said, Montreal is clinging to a one-goal lead and has three shots of its own this period, although it was buzzing during a power play while Brayden Point was serving a high-sticking penalty.
If the Canadiens can keep the game at this pace for the next 30 minutes, that would certainly be their preference.
The fans are happy as well, cheering each little play the home team makes and groaning with each near miss. Perhaps the biggest cheer in the first 10 minutes of this period came when captain Shea Weber smeared Point into the boards on a rush after he exited the penalty box.
The other big roar came when the cameras focused on Super Bowl champion Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, who won the trophy with the Kansas City Chiefs two seasons ago. The lineman did not play last season, instead serving as a doctor in the province, helping fight the pandemic.

9:20 p.m.

Montreal defenseman Joel Edmundson and Tampa Bay forward Patrick Maroon received coincidental minors for the fracas at the buzzer in the first period. Those were the only penalties from the incident, which had at least a dozen players milling around at center ice while the officials tried to keep things under control.
By the way, the DJ here has a great sense of timing. He played "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses as the teams took the ice for the second period. Foreshadowing, perhaps?
It was an interesting first period to be sure. Tampa Bay dominated up to the point of the Canadiens goal, but then the Canadiens started to find their footing and their confidence.
Carey Price held them in the game until that could happen. He stopped all 12 shots he faced and got some help from a post on a Brayden Point shot during the power play late in the period.
By the way, my plan to have another hot dog during intermission was foiled. The word is out and the line was to the top of the stairs - at least 30 people long - for the hot dog stand. In this case, the early bird gets the chien chaud, not the worm. Thank God!

9 p.m.

The Canadiens take a lead into the intermission, 1-0, for the first time in the series, thanks to the Josh Anderson goal.
It took 195:39 before Tampa Bay had to chase a game, but now the Lightning must.
The goal gave the Canadiens a bit of life after a sluggish start. They had three of the final four shots of the period, even though they had to kill a slashing penalty assessed with 2:01 remaining in the period.
Hostilities broke out after the final whistle of the first period when five members of the Lightning stared down a larger group of Canadiens players at center ice. Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher, who has been in the middle of most of the physical play, was one of the flash points in this meeting as well. Amazingly, "Killing in the Name" and "Bombtrack" by Rage Against the Machine were playing on the PA throughout the incident.
It should be an interesting start to the second period.

8:50 p.m.

The Montreal Canadiens have their first lead of the series, at 15:39 of the first period of Game 4, and the crowd is going crazy.
Josh Anderson scored the goal, a quick snapper that banged off the far post and in, but it was the pass by Nick Suzuki that made the play. He was patient with the puck, holding it to get around the sprawled Tampa Bay defender and slide below the goal line before he spotted Anderson as the second trailer and put a pass right on his tape.
Suzuki has been Montreal's most effective forward in this series.
It was Montreal's second shot of the game. Tampa Bay has 11.

8:40 p.m.

The Lightning have no jitters with the Stanley Cup on offer for the first time in this series.
They have dominated the first 10 minutes, keeping possession in the Montreal zone, cycling effectively and generating quality chances. Forward Ondrej Palat might have had the best chance to score, his tricky redirection of a shot from five feet away turned aside by a leg kick from goalie Carey Price.
The Lightning have the first eight shots of the game and Montreal has one shot on goal midway through the period. The Canadiens restructured each of their top three lines, but chemistry has not yet been achieved.

8:25 p.m.

The Canadiens brought out the biggest stars to cheer on the team tonight. Team legends Yvan Cournoyer, Guy Lafleur and Patrick Roy are in attendance and were shown together in the alumni box right before puck drop. Each received a huge roar as they were introduced.

In a more somber moment, there was a moment of silence before the pregame started to honor the memory of Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Matiss Kivlenieks, who died Sunday. He was 24.

8:15 p.m.

Alex Killorn is out for Game 4. The Lightning forward took part in warmups but did not skate in line rushes. He was a game-time decision.
Mathieu Joseph replaced him for the third straight game since Killorn sustained an unspecified injury in Game 1.
Once again, there are 3,500 fans making an unholy racket in what might be the final hockey game at Bell Centre this season. They clapped, stomped and waved towels throughout warmups and introductions.
From my vantage point, I can see two-thirds of the seats and almost every person is decked out in some sort of Canadiens gear. I did see a handful of Tampa Bay fans in their trademark blue jerseys scattered across the lower bowl.
We are just about ready for puck drop in the first elimination game of the Final. Here we go!

7:45 p.m.

The players are on the ice for warmups and Alex Killorn is out there. The Lightning forward was listed as a game-time decision after missing the past two games. Montreal has made the three changes outlined earlier.
Though there is no news on the game, there is news in the press box. After a hiatus of more than 18 months, the world-famous chien chauds are back! The hot dogs, cooked on a griddle and served in a toasted bun, are a tradition here that dates to the days when the Canadiens played in the Forum.
They have been clearly missed and my trip to Montreal, which has been nothing but time spent at the hotel room or the arena, now feels a little more real after a couple of these treats slathered in mustard. It reminds of my first trip to cover a game in Montreal, in 1994, a Saturday matinee between the New Jersey Devils and the Canadiens at The Forum. A fellow journalist said, "Try the hot dogs." I scoffed but did so and I was hooked immediately. The press meal tonight was another small step toward normalcy for me.

7 p.m.

There is no escaping the enormity of what lies ahead for the Canadiens. Four teams in the history of the NHL have won a best-of-7 series after losing the first three games. The Toronto Maple Leafs are the only team to do it in a Final, winning against the Detroit Red Wings in 1942.
But the Canadiens are not thinking big picture. Instead, they are trying to take the first step, winning Game 4. History is on their side as there has not been a sweep since 1998 and the previous team to lose the first three games of a Final, the New York Rangers, won Game 4 against the Los Angeles Kings in 2014. Two seasons earlier, the New Jersey Devils lost the first three games against the Kings and won Games 4 and 5.
Here are some stories from the
NHL.com
staff to get you ready for Game 4:
-- A resurgent Carey Price and immediate chemistry from reorganized lines for Montreal are among the
3 Keys for Game 4, according to senior writer Dan Rosen
.
-- Here is a deeper look at the changes to the Canadiens lineup, designed to inject a bit of speed to counter the Lightning,
according to staff writer Mike Zeisberger
.
-- Lightning forward Alex Killorn has missed each of the past two games with an unspecified injury sustained in Game 1, but he could be back for Game 3.
Here's Rosen on the lineup situation for Tampa Bay
.
-- The Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup in Montreal and are the only team in modern NHL history to achieve that feat. Zeisberger caught up with Lanny MacDonald and other members of the 1989 Flames to
discuss the enormity of the opportunity the Lightning have in Game 4
.
-- Coach Jon Cooper has been a driving force for the Lightning,
his calming influence is a big reason the Lightning
are on the cusp of back-to-back championships, writes Tom Gulitti.
-- On the verge of sweeping the Final, Tampa Bay has every reason to look ahead to what could come with victory tonight, but it won't. The
Lightning are too mature of a team now to fall into such a trap, writes columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika
.