Lightning grabs 2-0 lead in Final

TAMPA, Fla. — Just when the Montreal Canadiens found another gear to show they can hang with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final, Blake Coleman singlehandedly helped keep the series from being tied Wednesday night.

Coleman scored a one-armed, diving buzzer-beater in the second period and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was the best player on the ice in making a playoff career-high 42 saves to put the Lightning up 2-0 in the series with a 3-1 victory.

The Canadiens outshot the Lightning 43-23 but head home for Games 3 (Friday) and 4 (Monday) in Montreal needing a win to avoid being swept.

It was more Montreal’s style of play to give up a ton of shots, rely on goalie Carey Price to bail them out and buckle down with any kind of lead. Days after coach Jon Cooper said, “Part of our success has been trying not to rely on Vasilevskiy,” they did just that in Game 2.

The Lightning showed again why it’s the defending champ and favored to repeat by taking blow after blow and responding.

Missing fourth-leading scorer Alex Killorn because of an injury from Game 1 and with defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and forwards Tyler Johnson and Ross Colton wincing in obvious pain, Tampa Bay managed to beat Price three times on goals by Anthony Cirelli, Coleman and Ondrej Palat .

Coleman’s goal came with the clock running down at the end of the second, Barclay Goodrow put the puck around Montreal defenseman Ben Chiarot and sent the puck over on a rush to Coleman, who fought off Phillip Danault to bat the puck past Price and put the Lightning up 2-1 at the end of one of its worst periods of the playoffs.