Brandon Hagel scored his NHL playoffs-leading fifth and sixth goals in the third period and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Sunday night in Game 4 to tie the series.
After the first three games in the first-round best-of-seven series went to overtime, Tampa Bay overcame a two-goal deficit to end it in regulation. Game 5 is Wednesday night at Tampa's Benchmark International Arena.
Hagel gave the Lightning the lead with 4:43 left, deflecting Nikita Kucherov’s shot past Jakub Dobes.
The Lightning had to kill off a late power play when Kucherov was called for Slashing against Mike Matheson with 2:33 remaining. Overall, Tampa Bay's penalty kill was successful five of six times.
Jake Guentzel had a goal and assist, and Kucherov added two assists on the top line with Hagel.
The Lightning rebounded after falling behind 3-2 on Friday night on defenseman Lane Hutson’s OT slap shot.
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Hagel tied it on a power play at 1:40 off a centering pass from Kucherov. The Lightning got the man advantage when Oliver Kapanen was sent off for high-sticking Dominic James.
Guentzel cut it to 2-1 with 54 seconds to go the second, beating Dobes from the left side off a feed from defenseman J.J. Moser.
The goal came about a minute after Lightning defenseman Max Crozier's hard hit in the neutral zone against Montreal's Juraj Slafkovský, who went went to the locker room for the rest of period.
"Talk about getting momentum back," Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonaugh told Lightning TV. "A big hit, a clean hit."
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves for Tampa Bay.
Zachary Bolduc and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal in 3:23 span in the second. Caufield scored for the first time in the series after having 51 goals in the regular season. Dobes made 17 saves.
Bolduc opened the scoring with 9:54 left in the second. He took a long pass from defenseman Kaiden Guhle, held off Raddysh and had the puck deflect in off his body as he cut across the front of the goal.
Caufield struck on a power play with 6:31 left in the period, with Guentzel off for slashing Dobes’ glove. Caufield took Nick Suzuki’s centering pass in the slot and redirected the puck in.
SERIES SCHEDULE (best of seven)
Game 1 – Canadiens 4, Lightning 3 (overtime)
Game 2 – Lightning 3, Canadiens 2 (overtime)
Game 3 – Canadiens 3, Lightning 2 (overtime)
Game 4 – Lightning 3, Canadiens 2; series tied 2-2
Game 5 (if necessary) – at Tampa on Wednesday, Time TBD
Game 6 (if necessary) – at Montreal on Friday, Time TBD
Game 7 (if necessary) – at Tampa on Sunday, Time TBD
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