J.J. Moser scored the winner in overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 2, pushing the teams to a 1-1 tie in the series.
Montreal got goals from Josh Anderson and Lane Hutson in regulation, while Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel scored the regulation goals for the Lightning.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 of 27 shots to get the win for the Lightning, while Jakub Dobes turned away 30 of 33 shots for the Canadiens.
Nikita Kucherov scored the equalizer for Tampa Bay at the 12:33 mark of the third period, when a Canadiens turnover in their own zone found Kucherov’s stick behind the net and he was able to beat Dobes on a wrap around, evening the score at 2-2.
Anderson gave Montreal its first lead of the game late in the second period when he chipped a bouncing puck just outside the crease over Vasilevskiy’s pad.
Hutson found the opening marker for the Canadiens late in a power play in the first period on a shot from the point that fooled Vasilevskiy to even the score at 1-1.
Hagel continued his torrid start to the series with the game’s opening goal at the 8:40 mark in the opening frame - also on Tampa Bay’s first shot on goal of the contest.
A broken stick for a Habs player left the team undermanned on an even-strength play, and Hagel found a good spot to unleash a shot that banked in off the post to beat Dobes.
After a hotly-contested first game of the series that ended with an overtime victory for the Canadiens, these Atlantic Division rivals were expected to come out ready to play with a lot of intensity, and the game did not disappoint on that front.
There were a combined five roughing penalties called between the two sides throughout the game, and there was a fight between the early stars of the series in Hagel for Tampa Bay and Game 1 hero Juraj Slafkovsky for Montreal.
The Lightning even up the series at 1-1 as play shifts back to Montreal for Game 3 on Friday.
