*Photo from The Athletic*
Tampa Bay leads series 1-0
The Tampa Bay Lightning are a buzzsaw that does not stop cutting until there is nothing left to cut. Just ask the Montreal Canadiens. Nikita Kucherov scored two goals, Yanni Gourde scored the game winning goal, and the Lightning defeated the Canadiens 5-1 on Monday night to kick off the Stanley cup finals.
Kucherov said of his first goal that "Not much I had to do there, I was just trying to throw it on the net and see what happens. Fortunately, it was a lucky bounce for us. I thought it was Pally's(Ondrej Palat) goal. I hope he scores that goal. That was just something we need to do more, just throw something at the net and make some traffic there."
The series opening goal came from Erik Cernak, who gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead 6:19 into the first period, scoring his first goal of the playoffs. Gourde's goal 5:47 into the second made it 2-0 Lightning. In the 3rd, Kucherov scored two goals, and Steven Stamkos scored on the power play with 1:10 left in the game to give Tampa Bay the 5-1 win.
Meanwhile, for the Canadiens, they got stuffed all night long. Their only goal came from defensemen Ben Chiarot, who's goal deflected off two Lightning skaters and into the back of the net with 2:20 remaining in the second period, his first goal of the playoffs.
The Lightning defense did a good job blocking most shots, but when they didn't, goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was up to the task. Vasilevskiy stopped 18 of 19 shots he faced, for a .947 save percentage, effectively stuffing the Canadiens offensive attack.
Stamkos said of the win that "We've learned from past mistakes where we've sat back a little bit. I thought that second period, not counting the last five minutes, I thought we had a really great period. We let them get back in the game a little bit, letting one in. We just talked. We had a one-goal lead going into the third just like we did in Game 7 the other night, 'Let's attack. Let's go. Let's keep the pressure on.' I thought we did a really good job of that."
Carey Price was not at his peak, stop everything form for the Canadiens, and he got hit hard by the potent Lightning offense. Price saved just 22 of 27 shots the Lightning threw at him, managing a meager .815 save percentage.
Canadiens acting head coach Luke Richardson said "The rink was buzzing, and that's something that we will get over and we'll be a little bit more used to next game. And I think, you know, maybe just to strike early for us will be key next game to try and weather that storm and quiet the building a little bit and let us get a rhythm going."
Game two will take place on Wednesday night, with the Lightning looking to take a 2-0 series lead, and the Canadiens looking to tie the series 1-1 and force a game 5 back in Tampa Bay.
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