TAMPA, Fla. — Simply when the Montreal Canadiens discovered one other gear to indicate they will grasp with the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning within the Stanley Cup Ultimate, Blake Coleman singlehandedly saved the sequence from being tied.
Coleman scored a one-armed, diving buzzer-beater and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was the perfect participant on the ice in making a playoff career-high 42 saves to place the Lightning up two video games to none within the closing with a 3-1 victory Wednesday evening.
The Canadiens outshot the Lightning 43-23 and dominated lengthy stretches of play, however they head house for Video games 3 and 4 in Montreal needing to win at the very least one to keep away from being swept by an opponent that may win many various methods.
It was extra Montreal’s model of play to surrender a ton of photographs, depend on goalie Carey Value to bail them out and buckle down with any form of lead. Days after coach Jon Cooper stated, “A part of our success has been making an attempt to not depend on Vasilevskiy,” they did simply that in Sport 2 of the ultimate, and it labored.
Chants of “Va-sy! Va-sy!” from the gang of over 18,000 echoed via Amalie Area after the Vezina Trophy runner-up made one troublesome save after one other and completed with a . No participant bought an even bigger roar throughout pregame introductions, and he was the main target all evening with the Canadiens flinging the puck at him from all angles in a significantly better efficiency than the sequence opener.
However the Lightning confirmed once more why they’re the champs and favorites to repeat by taking blow after blow and responding. Lacking fourth-leading scorer Alex Killorn due to an damage from Sport 1 and with defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and forwards Tyler Johnson and Ross Colton wincing in apparent ache, Tampa Bay managed to beat Value thrice on targets by Anthony Cirelli, Coleman and Ondrej Palat regardless of a significant shot discrepancy.
Coleman’s purpose made all of {that a} moot level. With the clock working down on the finish of the second, Barclay Goodrow put the puck round Montreal defenseman Ben Chiarot and despatched the puck over on a rush to Coleman, who fought off Phillip Danault to bat the puck previous Value and put the Lightning up 2-1 on the finish of one among their worst durations of the playoffs.
Turnovers, misplaced puck battles and different errors added up — however to not a loss for the Lightning due to the dominant play of Vasilevskiy, who was excellent besides for an additional fluky bounce purpose when Nick Suzuki’s shot pinballed in halfway via the second.
Suzuki tied it for Montreal after Anthony Cirelli put the Lightning on the board a couple of minutes earlier. Cirelli’s seemingly innocent level shot discovered its approach via visitors and beat Value on simply the Lightning’s sixth shot of the evening.
When Palat scored to make it 3-1 with 4:18 left on the Lightning’s twenty first shot followers jeered, “Ca-rey! Carey!” at Value, and the Lightning improved to 13-2 this postseason when main on the second intermission.
