Habs avoid Stanley Cup sweep
Anderson delivers in overtime
MONTREAL, July 6, (AP): Josh Anderson delivered in overtime, and Montreal killed Tampa Bay’s chance for a Stanley Cup sweep.
Anderson said the Canadiens weren’t done, and he was right - at least for one night.
The speedy winger scored his second goal 3:57 into overtime, and the Canadiens avoided elimination by defeating the defending champion Lightning 3-2 in Game 4 on Monday.
“We didn’t want to end it tonight in front of our fans. We expected to go to Tampa tomorrow,” Anderson said. “I think everybody in that locker room did, you know, packed our bags this afternoon.”
The series shifts to Tampa Bay for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Carey Price stopped 32 shots for Montreal, and rookie defenseman Alexander Romanov also scored. The Canadiens also went 5 for 5 on the penalty kill, including a four-minute high-sticking penalty issued to captain Shea Weber with 1:01 remaining in regulation.
“Webby is our leader,” forward Brendan Gallagher said. “I think we would have killed it for anyone, but he’s been a rock for us since he’s come to our team.”
Pat Maroon and Barclay Goodrow scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei
ICE HOCKEY
Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots.
The Lightning are attempting to become the NHL’s second team to win consecutive championships in the salary-cap era, which began in 2005. The Pittsburgh Penguins accomplished the feat with titles in 2016 and 2017.
Tampa Bay, which won the Cup last year by defeating Dallas in six games, is one resilient bunch, too. It is 13-0 over the past two playoffs when coming off a loss.
“Sometimes you play pretty good and it’s a break here, a break there that just doesn’t go your way. You just go to keep working through it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “No hanging our heads but I liked a lot of things we did tonight.”
Montreal became the first team to score in OT to avoid a sweep in the Stanley Cup Final since the Bruins did it in 1946 against the Canadiens, according to STATS.
The Canadiens also avoided becoming the first team to get swept in the final round since Detroit won four straight over Washington to win the championship in 1998.
They drew some inspiration from Anderson, who provided his teammates with a rallying cry a day earlier when he said: “We’re not finished yet.”
“We understood the hole that we were in, but we just kind of talked about it: Find a way to win one game here,” Gallagher said. “(Anderson) stepped up and scored a couple of big
goals for us. It’s going to be the same thing next game.”
Interim coach Dominique Ducharme’s lineup changes paid off, with Romanov stepping up in just his third career playoff game.