Lane Hutson scored on a slap shot at 2:09 of overtime and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Friday night to take a 2-1 lead in an NHL first-round playoff series that has opened with three extra-time thrillers.
Hutson fired a shot from the top of right circle that went through traffic and found the top left corner behind goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy on the only shot on goal in overtime.
ALSO READ: Lightning beat Canadiens in overtime, 3-2, in Game 2
Game 4 is Sunday at 7 p.m. in Montreal, with Game 5 scheduled for Wednesday night at Tampa's Benchmark International Arena.
It is the first time in franchise history that the Lightning have opened a playoff series with three straight overtime games. The Canadiens took the series opener 4-3 on Sunday and the Lightning countered 3-2 on Tuesday night.
“Well, there's three overtime games so we've lost two of them," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "I thought of the three games this was our worst game for us from start to finish. I think it was fortunate for us that we took this to overtime."
Kirby Dach tied it for Montreal with 7:17 left in the second period. He fired a snap shot through traffic from the top of the right circle that beat Vasilevskiy on the short side.
Dach assisted on Alexandre Texier's opening goal at 4:53 of the first period. Jakub Dobes stopped 15 shots,
Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel scored for Tampa Bay, and Vasilevskiy made 26 saves. In the third, Vasilevskiy stymied Cole Caufield and Josh Anderson on breakaways.
"We gave up three pretty much full-ice breakaways," Cooper said. "Our goalie kept us in it. That was a little disappointing in that sense."
Point tied it on a power play at 7:42 of the first. After Dobes was penalized for tripping Yanni Gourde, Point took Jake Guentzel’s centering pass and ripped a shot past Dobes’ blocker from the high slot.
Hagel gave Tampa Bay the lead at 4:47 of the second with his fourth goal of the series. After a Montreal turnover at its own the blue line, Hagel beat Dobes with a snap shot to the short side from the top of the left circle.
"Obviously, had a chance to win it when it's next goal wins and we don't," Cooper said. "[Montreal] probably deserved that a little bit more than we did."
