8
1
Hockey gods push series back to Tampa.
TB-2
MTL-3 (OT)
Tampa Bay Leads the Series 3-1
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed three goals on 21 shots for the loss. Guess he was saving the forcefield for the real closeout game.
First Period
15:38 MTL Anderson (4), (Suzuki, Caufield)
Second Period
17:20 TB Goodrow (2), (McDonagh, Coleman)
Third Period
8:48 MTL Romanov (1), (Evans)
13:48 TB Maroon (2), (Joseph, Johnson)
Overtime
3:57 MTL Anderson (5), (Caufield)
Josh Anderson, Nick Suzuki, and Carey Price were the game’s three stars.
Sometimes in hockey you do pretty much all the right things and don’t get the result. That was the case for the Lightning tonight, as they hit 3-4 posts en route to a 3-2 OT loss that pushes the series back to a Game Five in Tampa. A lot will be made about the Lightning’s failure to convert on a four minute power play at the end of the Third Period that extended into the first three minutes of OT or so. Fair. But, overall the Lightning dominated the possession game and just didn’t get the results for their efforts not because of Carey Price, but because of goal posts and buzzard’s luck. Final xG per Moneypuck.com was 4.36 to 1.89 Tampa Bay. They put in a good enough effort to get the closeout and the hockey gods just didn’t give them the payoff. That happens. The good news is they made Montreal expend a ton of energy in this game. Really, for the Lightning to carry such a wide possession edge in this game with the Canadiens playing at home coming off two days’ rest bodes well for Game Five. On one day’s rest, Montreal’s very short bench of defensemen is going to have to get on a plane to Tampa and somehow stave off elimination again. That’s a tall task, especially with the Lightning’s big guns looking for a little redemption after not finding the scoresheet at all in Game Four.
Ross Colton was -1 with 2 hits and 1 blocked shot in 11:39.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
