Lightning, Canadiens made Game 6 ‘epic’ even before lone goal was scored

MONTREAL — It was, as they say in these parts, un Classique.

You don’t have to know French to understand what that means.

And you didn’t have to be rooting for either the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Montreal Canadiens Friday to truly appreciate the theatre you were watching in front of you, a true exhilarating showcase of the sport.

“How could you not love that game?” summed up Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis, shaking his head in awe.

Keep in mind that St. Louis was the coach of the losing team.

That’s how much he admired the thrills, spills and chills in an exhibition of hockey that won’t be forgotten for a long time.

He wasn’t alone.

In the end, the Canadiens came out on the short end of a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference First Round, the final dagger delivered by Gage Goncalves off a wild scramble in front of the Canadiens net at 9:03 of overtime.

When the puck entered the net, the once-raucous Bell Centre, deafening for much of the night, became so silent, you could hear the whooping of the Lightning players as they gleefully swarmed Goncalves.

Outside the arena, where thousands upon thousands of revelers had spent hours jubilantly cheering their beloved bleu-blanc-rouge on the big screen at a huge watch party, there was an eerie hush, the odd curse word, uttered in both languages, being an exception.

And so, now, we come to this: Game 7 in this memorable Eastern Conference First Round at Benchmark International Arena on Sunday, with the winner punching their ticket to a second round date with the Buffalo Sabres. 

A fitting resolution to a best-of-7 series that is tied 3-3 and could not be any tighter.

Both teams have scored 14 goals in the series. Both teams are 2-1 on the road. Every game has been decided by one goal. There have been four overtime games. Only once has a team had a two-goal lead, that being a 2-0 advantage by the Canadiens in Game 4 in a contest the Lightning came back to win 3-2.

Classique.

“It’s been unreal, to be honest,” said Lightning forward Brandon Hagel, who assisted on the winning goal. “Both teams had 106 points during the regular season coming into this series. They’re a really, really good hockey team over there. We’re a really, really good hockey team here. So I don’t think we expected anything else than what’s been going on here.

“They have incredible players. They have everything over there and we have everything over here. So there’s no doubt in my mind that’s why the series is going the way we expected it to.

“There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs. That’s just the reality of hockey and the reality of the playoffs.”

Here’s another reality: the last time the Canadiens had the chance to clinch a playoff series on home ice with a capacity crowd on hand was April 24, 2015 when they lost 5-1 to the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference First Round. Montreal still had a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series and went on to eliminate the Senators two days later with a 2-0 victory in Ottawa.

Yes, they did make a run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Lightning in five games. But there were only several thousand fans in Bell Centre for Montreal’s home games that year because of concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the Canadiens up 3-2 in this series and having the opportunity to eliminate Tampa Bay, the buzz throughout the city was electric all day Friday. And when former Canadiens pugilist Chris Nilan carried the ceremonial torch into Bell Centre as part of the Canadiens’ outstanding pregame festivities, the vibe inside the building was off the charts.

It continued that way for most of the evening, right from the get go when the Canadiens’ Josh Anderson pancaked Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak into the boards just 10 seconds after the opening face-off. 

And so it went for 60 minutes of hockey, back and forth, chance after chance. The Lightning hit three goal posts, the Canadiens one. Both goalies, Jakub Dobes of the Canadiens and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning, made save after save, many of the spectacular variety. There were big hits aplenty sprinkled in for good measure. The shots were 28-26 for Tampa Bay after three periods.

This game, at least in regulation, had everything but a goal.

Asked if he’d ever been in a better 0-0 game, Lightning forward Jake Guentzel shook his head.

“Nope,” he said, “that was the best.”

Lightning coach Jon Cooper has been in some classiques himself in the past 14 months. As the coach of Team Canada, there was the 3-2 overtime victory against Team USA in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off. Two months ago, there was the 2-1 overtime defeat to Team USA in the gold-medal game at the Winter Olympic Games in Milan.

Now this.

“Everyone wants goal scoring,” Cooper said. “That’s what everybody talks about, wanting more goal scoring in the League. But if you watched the game, that game didn’t need a goal. All it needed was one goal to end it. And that’s how exciting it was. 

“It was thrilling. It was epic. It was goaltenders making extraordinary saves, players doing things that were of grace and skill and magic, and there was intensity. There were hits. It was everything. And there wasn’t a goal scored yet. Everyone in the building was on the edge of their seats.

“And I think, I guess, that’s how epic games become epic.”

And, in this case, un Classique.