TAMPA, Fla. — Juraj Slafkovsky netted his hat-trick game-winner 1:22 into the postseason\u2019s first overtime as the Montreal Canadiens stunned the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Sunday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.<\/p>\n
After the Lightning\u2019s Jake Guentzel committed a high-sticking penalty with 21 seconds left in regulation, Montreal cashed in after the break as Slafkovsky took a pass from Lane Hutson and zipped the winner in Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n
It gave the 30-goal scorer his third power-play marker of the night as he became the first Montreal player to record a hat trick in the Stanley Cup playoffs since Rene Bourque in 2014 as the Canadiens wrested away home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be able to play any position out there,\u201d said Slafkovsky, the 2022 No. 1 overall pick who netted his goals from the left and right circles plus the slot. \u201cWe just kind of rotate and find the open guy who can shoot it. We had so many chances. \u2026 I\u2019m happy with the results so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josh Anderson scored the other goal for the Canadiens while Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki notched two assists apiece. Rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes made 20 saves.<\/p>\n
The Lightning\u2019s Brandon Hagel scored on the man advantage and at even strength while Darren Raddysh scored on the power play. Guentzel posted three assists and Nikita Kucherov had two.<\/p>\n
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 15-of-19 shots as Montreal went 3-for-5 on the power play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a problem with us,\u201d said Lightning coach Jon Cooper when asked whether he had an issue with the officiating. \u201cCome on, we took four offensive-zone penalties. Just look at them. That\u2019s not overaggression, that\u2019s like, stupidity. A lot of them. So that was on us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a game that we just gave them an opportunity to win. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. This isn\u2019t Game 62. So that is extremely disappointing in the way we conducted ourselves and the amount of penalties we took. \u2026 There are no excuses. Nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montreal defenseman Alexandre Carrier won a puck battle from his knees behind the home side\u2019s net in the first period, then Anderson took Carrier\u2019s feed and roofed the series\u2019 first marker at 13:24.<\/p>\n
Just 12 seconds after another Anderson tally was waved off due to a high stick, Lightning defenseman Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous was sandwiched between hard checks by Jake Evans and Anderson. While Anderson was assessed a minor, D\u2019Astous eventually got to his feet and was helped off but did not return.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay\u2019s offense took off from there.<\/p>\n
Raddysh, a 22-goal scorer, rocketed a power-play tally at 12:15. Hagel found a puck to the left of the cage and lifted one in just 29 seconds later for the Lightning\u2019s first lead in the series.<\/p>\n
During a late power play after Tampa Bay\u2019s Conor Geekie went off for high sticking, the Habs moved the puck quickly. Slafkovsky blistered a one-timer from the right circle with 24 seconds left in the second period to make it 2-2.<\/p>\n
On another power play in the third, Montreal took its second lead on more nifty passing. Slafkovsky buried his second goal from the low slot at 5:56 off a feed from Caufield.<\/p>\n
But Hagel matched it with a man-advantage tap-in two minutes later on Guentzel\u2019s third assist.<\/p>\n
Avalanche 2, Kings 1<\/p>\n
DENVER — Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves in his first Stanley Cup playoffs start and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of their best- of-seven first-round series.<\/p>\n
Artturi Lehkonen and Logan O\u2019Connor scored for the Avalanche, who had the league\u2019s best record to earn the Western Conference\u2019s top seed.<\/p>\n
\u201cFelt like we played a consistent game tonight, nothing special,\u201d said Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar. \u201cWe stuck to our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artemi Panarin got the goal for the Kings, who claimed the eighth seed with the fewest points of all 16 playoff teams. Anton Forsberg, who also started his first playoff contest, stopped 28 shots.<\/p>\n
Panarin spoiled Wedgewood\u2019s bid for a shutout with a 6-on-4 power-play goal with 2:22 left. Panarin scored on a screened shot from the high slot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have some more to give offensively in their zone, especially holding on to pucks, making it harder on them to come 200 feet,\u201d said veteran Kings center Scott Laughton. \u201cWe did a good job defensively. And again, 31 (Forsberg) was really good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lehkonen gave Colorado a 1-0 lead with 4:31 left in the second period when he put in the rebound of his own tip attempt.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor made it 2-0 5:50 into the third period. He picked up a loose puck at the top of the right circle, skated in and beat Forsberg high on the short side.<\/p>\n
An apparent goal by O\u2019Connor 6:46 into the middle period was waved off immediately as Jack Drury was whistled for goaltender interference. Drury went into Forsberg after colliding with defenseman Drew Doughty. Colorado coach Jared Bednar challenged as he claimed Doughty was responsible for the contact, but the call was upheld.<\/p>\n
Kings defenseman Brian Dumoulin was helped off the ice a little more than six minutes into the second after blocking an O\u2019Connor shot.<\/p>\n
Wedgewood stopped Trevor Moore, who charged in from the blue line, on a semi-breakaway with three minutes left in the first and Doughty sent a backhand wide with an open net seconds later.<\/p>\n
The Avalanche fired the first four shots. The Kings\u2019 first came 6:40 into the game by Adrian Kempe from the right circle off the rush.<\/p>\n
Colorado did not have a shot during a power play in the middle of the period.<\/p>\n
Sabres 4, Bruins 3<\/p>\n
BUFFALO — Tage Thompson scored two of the Buffalo Sabres\u2019 four goals in the final eight minutes of the third period in a comeback win against the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.<\/p>\n
Mattias Samuelsson and Alex Tuch scored the final two goals and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 17 saves for Buffalo, the Atlantic Division champion that was appearing in its first playoff game in 15 years. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday in Buffalo.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a ton of emotion,\u201d Thompson said of playing in the organization\u2019s first playoff game since 2011. \u201cThese are the games that you dream of. So happy to finally be here and to be able to go to battle with these guys. It\u2019s been such an unbelievable season, the fact that we got to this point. So proud of this group and it\u2019s just a start.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie each had a goal and two assists, Elias Lindholm also scored and Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves for Boston, the first wild card from the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n
Thompson cut it to 2-1 at 12:02 of the third when he pulled the puck out from behind the Boston net and pushed it across the goal line before Swayman could slide over.<\/p>\n
Thompson recovered the puck below the goal line and went to the side of the crease before sliding the puck under Swayman\u2019s pads to tie it at 2 at 15:44.<\/p>\n
Samuelsson then scored with a wrist shot from just above the left hash marks to give the Sabres a 3-2 lead at 16:36.<\/p>\n
Tuch scored into an empty net with 1:12 left to make it 4-2, which came in handy after Pastrnak scored a power-play goal with eight seconds left to cut it to 4-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in these situations all season long,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThere was no panic in our room. I thought we had a really good 40 the first two periods. We knew if we stuck with it, one was going to go in. And we just needed one to go in for us, and that was when we knew we\u2019d start to get a couple more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead at 10:52 of the first period.<\/p>\n
Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin blocked a shot by Pastrnak from just above the right circle off a rush, but the puck caromed to Geekie in the slot and he scored with a one-timer.<\/p>\n
Geekie led the Bruins with 39 goals during the regular season.<\/p>\n
The Sabres went on their second power play after Pavel Zacha was called for holding Alex Tuch, but the best scoring chance belonged to Boston forward Sean Kuraly, who stole a drop pass in the Buffalo zone before he was stopped on a breakaway at 1:41 of the second period.<\/p>\n
Luukkonen also stopped Pastrnak on two breakaways during the second period to keep it a one-goal deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played a really good hockey game for us,\u201d Boston coach Marco Sturm said. \u201cWe just couldn\u2019t finish it. That\u2019s the frustrating point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boston was outshot 13-4 in the second period, however, giving Buffalo a 27-13 edge entering the third, but the Bruins made it 2-0 at 1:08 of the third when Geekie\u2019s shot from the slot hit the right post and the rebound came to Lindholm, who fired it into the net from the right hash marks.<\/p>\n
Golden Knights 4, Mammoth 2<\/p>\n
LAS VEGAS — Nic Dowd scored the go-ahead goal 7:20 into the third period and Carter Hart made 31 saves as the Vegas Golden Knights rallied for a victory against the Utah Mammoth in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.<\/p>\n
Colton Sissons had a goal and an assist, Noah Hanifin had two assists and Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev also scored goals for Vegas, which improved to 8-0-1 since John Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy as head coach. Game 2 is Tuesday night in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Logan Cooley and Kevin Stenlund each scored goals for Utah, which was playing its first playoff game in franchise history. Karel Vejmelka finished with 27 saves.<\/p>\n
Pacific Division champion Vegas had the first good scoring chance during a physical first period that featured more than 30 hits, several scrums and 10 penalty minutes when Stone blasted a slap shot from inside the blue line that caromed off the right post.<\/p>\n
Utah took a 1-0 lead just before the end of the period when former Golden Knight Nate Schmidt rifled a cross-ice pass to Cooley, who one-timed a shot from the middle of the right circle inside the right post for his first career playoff goal.<\/p>\n
Vegas tied it 3:44 into the second period when Sissons tapped in Cole Smith\u2019s no-look backhand pass into the blue paint.<\/p>\n
The Mammoth regained the lead just 1:23 later. Stenlund fired a shot from along the right boards that Hart knocked away with his stick into defenseman Kaedan Korczak skating by the left side of the crease. The puck then ricocheted off Korczak and into the net to give the Mammoth a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n
The Golden Knights tied it at 2 at the 5:33 mark of the third period on a power-play goal by Stone, who roofed a rebound of a Tomas Hertl shot into an open net on the backdoor. It was Stone\u2019s 37th career playoff goal with Vegas, breaking a tie with Jonathan Marchessault for most in team history.<\/p>\n
Dowd gave the Golden Knights their first lead when he deflected Noah Hanifin\u2019s shot from the left point past Vejmelka\u2019s glove side.<\/p>\n
Utah pulled Vejmelka for an extra attacker with 1:45 to go, and Barbashev sealed the win with an empty-netter before Vejmelka fully left the ice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. — Juraj Slafkovsky netted his hat-trick game-winner 1:22 into the postseason\u2019s first overtime as the Montreal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-556561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116435793107424247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}