TAMPA, Fla. — Juraj Slafkovsky scored his third power-play purpose 1:22 into extra time and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Recreation 1 of their first-round collection on Sunday night time.
Slafkovsky fired a slap shot from the left circle that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to the far aspect for the hat trick.
Recreation 2 is Tuesday night time at Benchmark Worldwide Enviornment, the place Tampa Bay has misplaced eight of its final 9 residence video games within the postseason.
Josh Anderson additionally had a purpose for Montreal and rookie goalie Jakub Dobes made 20 saves.
Brandon Hagel scored two objectives and Darren Raddysh additionally scored for Tampa Bay.
The Lightning have been knocked out of the playoffs within the first spherical three straight seasons after falling two wins shy of a three-peat in 2022.
The Canadiens, coached by Lightning icon and Hockey Corridor of Famer Martin St. Louis, are in search of their first Stanley Cup since successful their NHL report twenty fourth in 1993. They haven’t received a playoff collection for the reason that Lightning beat them within the Cup Closing in 2021.
Hagel’s power-play purpose — a tip-in off a exact go by Jake Guentzel 8:58 into the third — tied it at 3-3 a couple of minutes after Slafkovsky put Montreal forward.
Slafkovsky’s shot from the excessive slot slid underneath Vasilevskiy’s left pad for a short-lived lead. He one-timed an ideal seam go from Ivan Demidov into the web from the correct circle to make it 2-2 within the ultimate minute of the second.
Raddysh tied it at 1 with a strong slap shot within the second. The Lightning shortly went forward 2-1 simply 29 seconds later when Hagel picked up a free puck from the aspect of the web and backhanded a shot previous Dobes.
Montreal’s fourth line gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead within the first when Anderson flipped a top-shelf shot into an open internet.
Anderson had one other purpose overturned by video assessment halfway by means of the second interval. He deflected Mike Matheson’s slap shot previous Vasilevskiy however it was waved off as a result of his stick was above the crossbar.
