Well, they’ve done it again. The Tampa Bay Lightning just win. Tampa Bay came from behind late for a dramatic overtime win against the Montreal Canadiens. A week to the day since their last game, the Lightning once again pulled off the comeback to keep the roll going.
Both teams came into Tuesday night’s game shorthanded. Tampa Bay was most notably without both of their NHL goalies. The Canadiens were without their starting netminder and a significant amount of their lineup. While both teams were plugging in where they had to, Montreal truthfully had more relatively unknown players than Tampa Bay.
Let’s break down how it happened.
1. Exclamation Point
Brayden Point announced his return to the Lightning lineup after missing the last 14 games with an upper body injury. Point recorded two goals and an assist with both of his goals coming in the first period. His first goal was an absolute beauty to open the scoring for Tampa Bay. He finished off a 2-on-1 rush with a toe drag and buried the shot for a highlight reel goal. He would add a second goal minutes later during the announcement of his first goal over the Public Address. If you forgot how good he was, you were quickly reminded.
2. Montreal Stringing it Together
The Habs were missing some significant pieces on Tuesday night. They were forced to insert a number of inexperienced players into the lineup because of having so many players in COVID protocol. All four Montreal goal scorers scored their first goals of the season in this one. You read that right. Montreal did not back down and surged particularly hard in the third period while trailing 3-2. The Canadiens would string together two quick goals to take the lead late and stun the crowd.
3. Didn’t You Used to Play Here?
On the night David Savard was recognized for his contributions to last year’s Stanley Cup championship in Tampa Bay, Savard scored a highlight reel goal of his own for his first as a Canadien. Savard danced around Victor Hedman and buried a shot to give Montreal a 4-3 lead late in the third period. To thicken the plot a bit, Corey Perry scored the tying goal late for Tampa Bay. Perry was on the opposite side of last year’s Lightning championship. Perry was playing with the Habs and was even on the ice for Savard’s Stanley Cup winning assist last summer. Things were coming full circle in the third period like an episode of Seinfeld.
4. Perry Does it Again
For the second time this year, the Worm scored late to tie the game with the Lightning net empty. Perry fired home a loose puck right in front with less than 20 seconds to go to bring the Lightning level. Perry has made a Hall-of-Fame career out of scoring goals and living at the front of the net and Tuesday night was no exception against his former club.
5. Palat Gets the OT Winner.
Steven Stamkos forced a Montreal turnover by shoving Montreal’s Jake Evans to the ice from behind. There was no penalty after Evans went down pretty easily. Victor Hedman fed Palat for a wide open one timer to bury the OT winner 36 seconds into overtime. Hedman and Palat made the most of getting the break. The winner also meant that Maxime Lagace earned the win in his Lightning debut between the pipes. Lagace was decent and made 27 saves on 31 Montreal shots. Not too bad after being thrown into a tough situation.