Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy did everything he could to carry the Tampa Bay Lightning past the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference First Round series at Bell Centre on Friday night. It wasn’t enough.
Vasilevskiy denied three Montreal breakaways in regulation, but he never saw Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson’s slap shot from the right point as it sailed past a host of bodies and into the net 2:08 into overtime to give the Canadiens a 3-2 victory and a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.
Alexandre Texier, who opened the scoring early in the first period, worked the puck back to Hutson, and the 2025 Calder Trophy winner teed up a rocket that found its way through a half-dozen bodies and into the net.
HUTSON IS THE GAME 3 HERO ‼️Lane Hutson fires home the Subway Canada OT winner for the Canadiens in Game 3! pic.twitter.com/RD5wyKxyQf
Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel scored for the Lightning. Hagel’s goal early in the second period put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1, but Kirby Dach got the Canadiens even at 12:43. Vasilevskiy finished with 26 saves on 29 shots; Montreal rookie Jakub Dobes faced only 17 shots, stopping 15.
It was the third straight overtime game in the series, a first for the Lightning since entering the NHL in 1992. The Canadiens hadn’t gone to OT in three straight playoff games since Games 2, 3 and 4 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Final – they won all three on the way to their most recent championship. It was the first time any NHL playoff series opened with three straight overtime games since the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals did it in 2021.
The teams split OT wins in Games 1 and 2 at Benchmark International Arena, with the Canadiens winning 4-3 in the opener and Tampa Bay evening the series with a 3-2 win in Game 2. The Lightning have not won consecutive playoff games since the 2022 Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers.
They will try to even the series Sunday night in Montreal.
The sellout crowd of 20,962 was roaring from the moment Canadiens legend Yvan Cournoyer carried a torch to lead Montreal onto the ice. It got even louder when their heroes grabbed a quick lead.
Zach Bolduc carried the puck into the right circle and saw Texier coming late down the middle, with no Lightning defender there to pick him up. Bolduc put a pass right on Texier’s stick for a perfect shot from the slot that caught the top corner past Vasilevskiy’s glove at 4:53, putting Montreal up 1-0.
But that lead didn’t last long. Dobes was called for tripping Yanni Gourde, and the Lightning capitalized at 7:42 when Point found space in the slot, took a pass from Jake Guentzel and one-timed it into the net for a 1-1 tie.
AND THE CROWD GOES WILD! 🥳 #StanleyCup Alexandre Texier opens the scoring for the @CanadiensMTL!🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT🇨🇦: @Sportsnet & @TVASports pic.twitter.com/zO4aJqRcWH
The Lightning got another power play 30 seconds after the goal when Dach was called for tripping but generated little. Montreal had one good chance after Nikita Kucherov took a needless tripping penalty at 12:23, and the Lightning again failed to convert after Mike Matheson took a hooking penalty at 19:11.
Tampa Bay dominated play for the first few minutes of the second period and went ahead 2-1 at 4:47. Hagel picked off a pass by Jake Evans in the neutral zone, raced into the left circle and surprised Dobes with a quick shot that beat him to the short side for his fourth goal of the series.
HOW YA DOING HAGEL!?! 😤The @TBLightning have taken the lead! #StanleyCup📺: @NHL_On_TNT, @Sportsnet & @TVASports pic.twitter.com/hlALhfgQAH
Vasilevskiy preserved the lead just over a minute later by stopping Montreal rookie Ivan Demidov on a breakaway. Demidov, who led all NHL rookies with 62 points during the regular season, gave the Lightning their fourth power play at 9:59 when he carelessly high-sticked Ryan McDonagh, but Tampa Bay couldn’t capitalize.
That set the stage for the Canadiens to tie the score. Vasilevskiy stopped Dach from the slot, but the puck went to the right boards. Dach tracked it down and fired through a maze of bodies; Vasilevskiy never saw the puck, which appeared to go off McDonagh and into the net at 12:43 to make it 2-2.
Tampa Bay spent most of the rest of the period killing penalties. Hagel was called for holding the stick at 14:05, Emil Lilleberg was sent off for hooking at 16:14 and Darren Raddysh took a high-sticking minor at 19:29.
Montreal outshot the Bolts 13-7 in the middle period, and Tampa Bay didn’t have a shot on goal for the last 13:25.
Cole Caufield with the whiff on a breakaway 😬 pic.twitter.com/hVwJ43Hu0P