\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"NHL](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dominic-James-faceoff-Rd-1-Gm-5-2026-Apr-29-by-SeanK-scaled.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDominic James (17) faces off against Jake Evans in the third period of Game 5 in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs first round game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens. By Se\u00e1n Kinane \/ WMNF News (29 Apr. 2026).<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Lightning are one game away from elimination after losing another close game at home Wednesday night. The Bolts lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 3 to 2 after a tie-breaking goal early in the third period. <\/p>\n
After the game, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said his team missed opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Defenseman Darren] Raddysh hits the post. An open net puck just bounces over [forward Nikita Kucherov\u2019s] stick. And like 40 seconds later and the same basically end back end and it\u2019s in our net,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cAnd so, you just feel like it was a little deflating at that point, you know, at the start of the period for that to happen. But I thought we gave ourselves chances to score. Can we do some things better? There\u2019s no question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montreal\u2019s head coach is Martin St. Louis, the third leading scorer in Tampa Bay Lightning history.<\/p>\n
After the game, he praised the work by rookie goalie Jakub Dobes and others. Especially during a long stretch at the end when the Lightning had an extra skater after pulling their goalie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey go and execute big block shots. Dobes was awesome. You know, it\u2019s not an easy team to go, you know, that long 6-on-5 and I thought we managed it pretty well. And it wasn\u2019t one thing. I think it was just collectively found a way to keep it out of our net,\u201d St. Louis told reporters.<\/p>\n
Game six is Friday in Montreal. If the Bolts lose, their season is over. If they win, the teams will play a deciding Game 7 on Sunday in Tampa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominic James (17) faces off against Jake Evans in the third period of Game 5 in the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[5,189,58990,4,43,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":["post-563366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-hockey","tag-lightning","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaylightning"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116493709217310580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563366","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=563366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}