The Tampa Bay Lightning provided a stern test on Sunday night, coming back from two goals down to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 at the Bell Center and even their Eastern Conference First Round series at two-up.
Brandon Hagel's second goal of the game with 4:53 remaining in regulation capped the comeback. Hagel was battling for position in front of Montreal goaltender Jacob Dobbs when Nikita Kucherov fired the puck on net from the right board near the top of the circle.
The shot hit him and hit the net, giving the Lightning their first lead of the night.
Hegel tied the game at 2-2 at 1:40 of the third period, winning inside position in front of the net and converting a cross-crease pass from Kucherov into a power-play goal.
Jake Guentzel's goal in the final minute of the second period put Tampa Bay on the board, after which Montreal took a 2–0 lead on goals by Zachary Bolduc and Cole Caufield.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves for his 69th career playoff win. Dobbs stopped 17 shots.
Teams get two days off before Game 5 at Benchmark International Arena on Wednesday night. The Lightning will try to win consecutive playoff games for the first time since the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals, when they lost the first two games to the New York Rangers before winning the next four.
The Lightning had an early chance to take the lead when Montreal was called for fouling just 2:04 after an early face-off. They controlled the puck in the offensive zone for most of the two minutes, but Dobbs blocked a rocket from Darren Raddish and Canadiens defenseman Caden Guhle got his stick on Braden Point's open shot from the slot.
Montreal did not get a shot on goal until Caufield tested Vasilevskiy at 6:20. But after Bolt took consecutive penalties, the Canadiens got six shots in a span of 3:48 – Max Crozier was called for high-sticking at 7:22 and Yanni Gourde was called for cross-checking at 9:10. Vasilevskiy was up to the challenge, blocking a shot by Game 3 hero Lane Hutson and denying Game 1 hero Juraj Slafkowski on a rebound.
The final nine minutes of the period contained hit penalties by the Canadiens (who finished the period with a 23–10 lead), but few testing shots on either goaltender. Montreal finished the period with a 9–6 lead in shots on goal, but the Lightning held them to just three at 5-on-5 and none at all in the final 8:04 of the period.
The first half of the second period was much the same. Tampa Bay did nothing on the early power play after Josh Anderson was sent off for boarding 41 seconds into the period and neither team produced much offense.
But the game changed shortly after intermission when the Canadiens finally opened the scoring.
Bolduc took a pass at the Tampa Bay blue line and cut to the net, with Reddish trying to stop him. As Bolduc approached the net, Vasilevskiy made a poke-check, but it hit the Canadiens forward and bounced into the net at 10:06, giving Montreal a 1–0 lead.
Guentzel took a bad slashing penalty at 12:24 for hitting Dobbs after a save, and the Canadiens took advantage of it at 13:29 thanks to smart play from their top line. Nick Suzuki controlled the puck in the left corner and Caufield, a 51-goal scorer during the regular season, went to the front of the net before deflecting a perfect pass past the helpless Vasilevskiy for the 2-0 lead.
But the Lightning appeared to get a jolt of energy when Crozier, playing his first game of the series, leveled Slafkowski at center ice with a brutal but clean hit just before the 18-minute mark.
Guentzel then responded with a power-play goal to put the Lightning on the board with 54 seconds remaining. With the teams playing 4-on-4, he moved the puck around the net, passed it to JJ Moser at the right point, raced in front of the net and converted a sensational pass by Moser for his first goal of the season, cutting the deficit to 2–1.
The Lightning didn't produce much on the power play in the first two periods, but they were nearly flawless after Oliver Kapanen was called for high-sticking 51 seconds into the third. Tampa Bay worked the puck around the offensive zone before a Kucherov-to-Hagel combination tied the game.
Kucherov's play on the winning goal surprised the Canadians. He caught a quick glimpse of Hegel heading to the front of the net and fired the puck on the goal, where he caught a piece of Hegel and headed it into the net for the win.
Key Takeaways After Lightning Even Series By Beating Canadiens 3-2
Hegel continues to score
Lightning has scored 11 goals in this series. Hegel has six of them, as his pair in the third period evened the best-of-7 series. Needless to say, Hegel leads all NHL players in postseason goals – no one else has more than four.
He also helped the Bolts make some history.
Hagel promoted the 10th multi-goal comeback playoff win in Lightning history, and their fourth on the road. It was his first appearance since defeating the New York Rangers 3–2 in Game 3 of the 2022 Eastern Finals. It was also the fourth consecutive comeback win in this series; Montreal and Tampa Bay are the first set of teams to combine to start a series with four consecutive wins since the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets played five such games in the 2019 Western Conference First Round.
Crozier's hit might have changed the series
The Lightning looked like they were headed home in an attempt to avoid a fourth consecutive one-upmanship in the Stanley Cup playoffs when Caufield's goal gave the Canadiens their first two-goal lead of the series. The Bell Center crowd was roaring, the Canadians were flying and Bolt looked a little surprised.
Then Crozier, who hadn't played for the Lightning in the postseason since 2024, stepped up — literally.
The 26-year-old, who played 35 games for Tampa Bay this season, finishing with a goal and 10 points, caught Slafkowski near the red line as he received a pass and flattened him with a clean but devastating hit.
The Canadian barked at Crozier but did not attempt to retaliate for the attack, which caused a fire under the lightning. The jolt of energy was palpable, and became more intense after Guentzel's goal made the score 2–1 less than 90 seconds later.
"He makes a big play and comes back to the bench," defenseman Ryan McDonagh said on the Scripps Sports postgame show.
the resident comes again
The Lightning trust Vasilevskiy to deliver when it matters most. he did the same in game 4
The "Big Cat" did not face many shots - Montreal attempted 48 but managed only 18. Following the Lightning playoff loss he improved to 16–0 with 16 saves in his last 16 games.
His biggest stop may have been the one he made on Ivan Demidov over the middle, though Montreal's star rookie found a dead spot in defensive coverage and was alone in the slot.
This was a game the Lightning had to win – and Vasilevskiy made sure they did.
