The Lightning tie the series in a game rife with penalties

Michaël Petit
The Lightning tie the series in a game rife with penalties
Credit: DansLesCoulisses.com

The Montreal Canadiens faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of the series. The Habs had a chance to push the Lightning to the brink with a third win before heading back to Tampa Bay.

As mentioned earlier, the Lightning had made a change to their lineup, but during the pregame warm-up, we learned that Scott Sabourin wouldn't be playing either.

For Martin St-Louis's squad, the forward lines and defensive pairs remained unchanged. There were no changes to the lineup.

Here is the Habs' lineup for Game 4:

Once again, we were treated to a very intense game, and right from the start, Josh Anderson set the tone with some hard hits.

Jakub Dobes was quickly put to the test early in the game when Juraj Slafkovsky was sent to the penalty box, giving Tampa Bay a power play. The Czech goaltender was on fire, making several big saves.

Andrei Vasilevskiy was also put to the test shortly after, as Tampa Bay took two penalties in the span of just under two minutes, giving the Habs two power plays. The Russian goaltender was also excellent in net, stopping several quality scoring chances by the Habs.

Overall, MSL's squad had the upper hand in the first period, but both goalies were outstanding.

Both teams headed to the locker room with the score tied 0-0.

Early in the period, Josh Anderson checked Ryan McDonagh along the boards, earning himself a two-minute penalty. However, he didn't serve the penalty because he was injured on the play and retreated to the locker room.

Fortunately, the Habs didn't allow a goal during that penalty kill, and Anderson returned to his team's bench a few minutes later.

Zachary Bolduc had been in the shadows since the start of the series, even though he had a very good Game 3, but he managed to electrify the crowd with a beautiful individual effort. He skated down the right wing, protecting the puck very well, and cut toward Vasilevskiy's net. The puck eventually took a strange bounce and caught the Russian goaltender off guard.

If there was one thing that stood out during the game, it was that there were plenty of power plays on both sides.

Shortly after Bolduc's goal, Alex Newhook was penalized for hooking, and following that Habs penalty kill (which they executed flawlessly), Jake Guentzel gave Dobes a little stick check. That created another scoring opportunity for the Habs with the man advantage.

Cole Caufield timed it (very) well to find the back of the net for the first time in this series (and for the first time in his career against the Lightning, in his 9th game).

Nick Suzuki showed great patience, and Caufield positioned himself in front of the net and threaded the needle by deflecting the puck past Vasilevskiy.

After the goal, we finally saw more action in the game with a lot of commotion during a stoppage in play. Jayden Struble, Arber Xhekaj, and Kirby Dach were all involved in the scuffle. Xhekaj even challenged Nick Paul to a fight, but Paul declined.

Toward the end of the second period, the entire Quebec crowd held its breath for a moment.

Juraj Slafkovsky was the victim of a violent hit right in the middle of the ice and appeared dazed.

He struggled to get back up and eventually retreated to the locker room for the remainder of the period.

Fortunately, he returned to the game at the start of the third period.

However, on the play where Slafkovsky was checked, the Habs came away with a penalty. The Lightning also received a penalty a few seconds after the Habs', but Tampa Bay cut the lead late in the second period during a 4-on-4 situation.

After 40 minutes of play, the score was 2-1 in favor of the Habs.

The momentum clearly shifted following that hit, as the Lightning tied the game early in the third period. Of course, it had to be Brandon Hagel…

There were really too many penalties in the game, especially bad ones. The referees were quick to blow the whistle, and the Tampa Bay players took advantage by trying to draw certain penalties, including the one on Kapanen early in the third period.

That said, it was up to both teams to stay more disciplined.

In the first half of the third period, the Habs took three minor penalties, and Jake Evans nearly took a major penalty for boarding Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov seemed to have fallen on the play, but you could tell he was clearly in pain.

However, during a 5-on-3 (following Evans' penalty), the Habs were excellent, killing off the 5-on-3 flawlessly.

Unfortunately, shortly after that 5-on-3, Brandon Hagel completed his team's comeback by giving the Lightning the lead for the first time in the game. Kucherov shot the puck toward the net, and it looked like a routine play, but it resulted in Tampa Bay's third goal.

Him again…

With just over two minutes left in the third period, Kucherov was assessed a penalty, giving the Habs another power play.

The Habs obviously took advantage of this to pull Dobes and bring a sixth player onto the ice, but it wasn't enough.

Final score: 3-2 for Tampa Bay.

Game 5 of the series (to be played in Tampa Bay) will take place Wednesday night.


Overtime

– Both teams were very undisciplined, which led to a lot of offensive play in this game. The Lightning had seven power plays, while the Habs had six. The Habs will need to be more disciplined if they hope to beat the Lightning.

– Once again, Josh Anderson had a strong game, and it's hard to name a single Habs player who didn't play well in this fourth game of the series. However, there were some bad penalties, which may have cost the Habs the game.

– In this series, the games have always been very close. So much so that when Caufield made it 2-0, it was the first time in this series that either team had a two-goal lead.

– Brandon Hagel seems to be the Habs' new nemesis. He scored his 5th and 6th goals of the series after four games.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!