This game resembled Saturday’s contest in Detroit. In both, the Lightning converted on early Grade-A chances to build a lead. They endured rough stretches in which they ceded possession. They were outshot and out-attempted by a wide margin. They yielded more scoring chances than they generated. But their ability to cash in on their own opportunities provided them with a big enough cushion to withstand opposition surges, and Andrei Vasilevskiy helped them preserve their leads with two strong goaltending performances.
In this contest, Nick Paul scored on the Lightning’s first shot of the game. Brandon Hagel disrupted a Montreal clearing attempt and fed an open Paul in front of the net. Paul deked Jakub Dobes and roofed a backhander at 6:56. Victor Hedman made it 2-0 when he recorded the Lightning’s second shot. Hedman joined a Lightning rush, accepted a centering feed from Gage Goncalves, and wristed the puck past Dobes’ glove at 10:28. Certainly, the Lightning were glad to be up by two goals, but the fact that it took them more than half a period to register two SOG was telling.
After the Hedman goal, the Canadiens dominated play for the rest of the frame. Brendan Gallagher tallied a power-play goal at 18:53 when he fired a shot from the inner part of the left circle past Vasilevskiy’s stick, but that was just one of many first-period scoring chances Montreal generated. The Canadiens finished the frame with 13 shots on goal and 32 attempts. The Lightning managed only eight shot attempts, and the two goals they scored came on their only two five-on-five SOG in the period.
The Lightning regrouped during the intermission and started the second period well. They brought a power play into the middle frame. Although they were without Nikita Kucherov for this game (he has an upper-body injury and is day-to-day), they created several good looks on the man advantage before Brayden Point finished a left-circle shot into a vacated side of the net at 1:05. Dobes fell on his stomach as the puck reached Point and was therefore out of the play. Sam Montembeault replaced Dobes after that goal. Montembeault made a couple of in-tight saves on Goncalves and Paul, as well as a fine glove stop on Mitchell Chaffee. But soon after, the Lightning celebrated the first goal of the season for Zemgus Girgensons. The play started with a Girgensons offensive-zone faceoff win. Mikey Eyssimont forced the puck from the left circle toward the slot, where Cam Atkinson grabbed it. Atkinson went wide to his forehand, drawing Montembeault out to the side, and centered it back to Girgensons at the top of the crease. Girgensons slammed it into an open net at 6:43.
The rest of the second period was evenly played. The Habs got back one of those goals at 12:45 when Christian Dvorak zipped a right-circle shot past Vasilevsky’s stick.
The third period looked like the second half of the first, however. The Lightning had very little possession and were forced to defend for most of the frame. Gallagher snapped home another shot at 9:19, cutting the Lightning lead to 4-3. But the Habs couldn’t find the equalizer. Anthony Cirelli sealed the win with an empty netter in the closing seconds. It was his 20th goal of the season, matching his career-high from last season.
Like the Detroit game on Saturday, this one wasn’t always pretty. But the Lightning banked two more important points against a division rival and won all four of the key divisional games they had on the schedule this week.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game:
- Zemgus Girgensons — Lightning. GWG.
- Brendan Gallagher — Canadiens. Two goals.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy — Lightning. 32 saves.
