Habs advance to second round
Pacioretty scores winning goal
MONTREAL — A festival was being held outside in the rain, the only one in Canada, and only as it could be held in Montreal. Fans squeezed shoulder- to- shoulder, and beer- to- beer, 90 minutes before the first puck dropped on Tuesday, some tempting the fickle hockey gods by waving their brooms in a distinct sweeping motion along the street.
It continued inside the Bell Centre, where Ginette Reno burnished a growing legend with her second straight command performance of O Canada. Multiple reports indicated Reno shook hands with Canadiens forward Daniel Briere as she left the ice, only to have Briere score the game’s opening goal minutes later.
The Tampa Bay Lightning were there, too, but only as invited guests, extras in the crowd of red. And like a reasonable party guest, the Lightning left quietly at the end of the night, having been swept from their first-round playoff series with a 4-3 loss.
Montreal is the only Canadian team in the NHL postseason this spring, and it is the first to book passage to the second round. The Canadiens will now have the luxury of waiting and watching the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings beat on each other before facing the survivor in the next round.
“You can’t hear a thing down there on the ice,” Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher told reporters before the game. “They’re standing, they’re cheering the whole time. It’s just fun to be a part of it and play in front of it.”
Whatever it was — a jolt of electricity, a wave of emotion — it seemed to highlight what differences had been laid bare through the first three games. Montreal was on a roll, and Tampa Bay was just holding on.
Never was that more evident than in goal, where Lightning regular Ben Bishop resumed skating Tuesday morning with hopes of returning from an elbow injury as early as Game 5, later this week. There was one obvious problem with that: Game 4.
Anders Lindback was pulled in the second period after allowing a second goal from just inside the faceoff circle. Kristers Gudlevskis, the team’s third-string goaltender, went in facing a two-goal deficit and an overwhelmed defence.
The Canadiens were outshooting the Lightning 6- 3 nine minutes into the first period, and just kept sprinting. Montreal was up 12-3 when Lars Eller scored to build a 2-0 lead, and was up 29-13 heading into the third period. The noise grew, as if to form another barrier.
There were flickers of resistance. Lightning captain Steven Stamkos was true to his word and returned after suffering an apparent concussion in Game 3 — “I tried to shake it off,” he told the Tampa Bay Times — and sparked a brief uprising in the second period.
He shoved Canadiens defenceman Alexei Emelin in the chest, then delivered a right cross to his chin. This was notable for two reasons. First, it was Emelin’s knee that hit Stamkos in the back of the head in Game 3. And second, Stamkos somehow went off for hooking, without any further mention of the punch.
Ondrej Palat scored to cut Montreal’s lead, only to have Gallagher score the goal to chase Lindback from the net. All the Canadiens had to do was kill off the third period, and they were through.
It seemed all but assured. Stamkos snapped his stick on a clear attempt in the slot down 3-1 in the second period, shaking his head as he skated back to the bench. The party was set to carry into the late evening hours in the streets of downtown Montreal.
Except, the Lightning struck twice in the first 10 minutes of the third. First, it was Victor Hedman, the big defenceman, banking a shot off Canadiens goaltender Carey Price from an awkward spot behind the net.
Three minutes later, Tyler Johnson scored to tie the game and reduce the wall of noise to isolated bursts of frustration.
The roar returned with 42.6 seconds left, as loud as it had been all night. Max Pacioretty banged a rebound into the net, with the power-play goal standing as the winner.
The party that began in the rain was not going to be called off by a little bit of lightning.