Brandon Hagel scored his second goal of the game with 4:53 remaining in the third period to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 win over the Canadiens on Sunday night in Montreal.
The Lightning rallied from a 2-0 second-period deficit to even their Eastern Conference first-round series at two games apiece. The best-of-seven series shifts back to Tampa for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
“It’s just a resilient group,” Lightning center Jake Guentzel said. “We’ve been through a lot this year. You never want to be down 2-0 in this building and we were down in the series. Obviously a huge kill at the end there and ‘Vasi’ (goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy) played unbelievable. That’s just a resilient group, and a big win for us.”
The Lightning were unable to score during a 5-on-3 power play in the third period, but minutes later they broke a 2-2 tie. Nikita Kucherov put the puck on net from along the right boards and it deflected off Hagel in front and into the net.
It was Hagel’s sixth goal of the series, and he has scored at least one goal in all four games.
Tampa Bay survived a 6-on-4 stretch in the final minutes when Montreal got a power play and then pulled goalie Jakob Dobes for the extra attacker.
The three previous games between No. 2 seed Tampa Bay and No. 3 seed Montreal had ended in overtime.
“They’re a tough team and we knew it was going to be a tough series,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We’re right in it, we’re in a battle. It’s a fine line between winning and losing in these games but we’re battling.”
Guentzel had a goal and an assist, Kucherov and J.J. Moser each had two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves for the Lightning.
Zachary Bolduc and Cole Caufield scored for the Canadiens and Dobes made 17 saves.
Bolduc gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 10:06 of the second period. He gathered in Kaiden Guhle’s long pass, went to the net, and when Vasilevskiy attempted to poke the puck away, it deflected in off Bolduc.
Caufield made it 2-0 at 13:20 during a power play. Nick Suzuki passed in front from below the left circle and Caufield knocked it home from in front.
Guentzel pulled the Lightning within 2-1 with 54 seconds remaining in the period. He worked a give-and-go with Moser at the top of the zone, went to the net and deflected Moser’s return pass by Dobes.
Hagel tied the game with a power-play goal at 1:40 of the third period. Guentzel passed down to Kucherov below the right circle and Kucherov centered to Hagel for the tip in from just above the crease.
“Our power play got one when we needed it to and then we just continued to roll,” Hagel said. “I thought we were good all night, to be honest.”
–Field Level Media
