Edmonton Journal

Parenteau relishes key goal in Game 4

- DAVE STUBBS dstubbs@montrealga­zette.com twitter.com/Dave_Stubbs

TAMPA, Fla . — At one end of the ice Saturday, we witnessed The Save, Canadiens goalie Carey Price’s unfathomab­le robbery of Tampa Bay Lightning centre Valtteri Filppula seven minutes and change into the third period.

Then eight minutes later came The Goal.

OK, so maybe P.A. Parenteau’s one-timed snapshot wasn’t in the same league as Price’s save.

But Parenteau’s first goal of the playoffs couldn’t have come at a more opportune time: 4:07 left in regulation, the teams tied 1-1, the Canadiens one loss from the end of their season.

“It was a huge goal for myself, for the team, for everyone who watches the Canadiens. It pretty much saved the season,” Parenteau said after Monday’s practice.

The 32-year-old veteran was not blowing his own horn, nor was he inflating his goal to anything larger than it was. What he spoke were the facts. Parenteau’s shot gave the Canadiens life for at least one more match, Game 6 on tap Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.

“I had a hard time sleeping (Saturday night), for sure,” he said, heading out into an early afternoon’s decidedly un-hockey weather.

“I replayed the play in my head over and over. It was a great moment, but we know we only have half the job done.”

Indeed, the Canadiens’ Game 5 win will be nothing more than a moral victory should the Habs fall here Tuesday and be bounced in six instead of five.

What Parenteau replayed in his mind was defenceman P.K. Subban picking off a weak clearing attempt by Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, then Subban pinching down to the halfwall before a quick pass out to Parenteau, who snapped home what would be the winner from about 40 feet.

Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop was at least partially screened by defenceman Matthew Carle. “I didn’t see it,” Bishop said later.

But this is hardly a crisis in the Lightning dressing room.

“We went over that,” head coach Jon Cooper said after his team’s Monday practice. “Bishop wasn’t thinking any ill will toward Carle,” who is third on the team for blocked shots. “I think it was probably the exasperati­on of giving up the goal in the last four minutes.”

At no point, Parenteau said, have the Canadiens been resigned to a bitter fate in this series, though they dropped the first two on home ice then fell in Game 3, surrenderi­ng the winning goal with 1.1 seconds left in regulation.

“If you know you deserve to be down 3-0, then you know you’re done,” Parenteau said. “But that wasn’t the case for our squad. ... “It’s not easy to do when you’re down 3-0. Game 3 was a hard night for us afterward, but the next morning we were ready to go to work and we did just that in Game 4.

“... We could have got deflated easily, but we didn’t. It’s pretty fun right now. We’re enjoying the ride and we hope we can keep it going (Tuesday) night.”

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