The Montreal Canadiens stayed alive in the Stanley Cup Final with a 3-2 win in overtime in Game 4, avoiding a sweep and sending the series with the Tampa Bay Lightning back to Florida for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Miss any of the game? We’re here with the top takeaways.
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Stanley Cup Final Game 4 in 10 words or fewer
Canadiens penalty kill comes through in overtime thriller.
Player of the game: Josh Anderson, F, Montreal Canadiens
Anderson opened and closed the scoring in Game 4, tallying the game-winner — his fifth goal of the playoffs — at 3:57 of overtime. The Canadiens scrambled their lines for the game, and may have found something special in Anderson’s trio with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.
What worked for Montreal?
Playing for survival brought out the best in the Canadiens. They were dogged and physical, playing a game that was equal parts fast and brutal. They were, for the most part, solid in front of Carey Price. Did they make the kinds of mistakes that led to Lightning goals for the fourth straight game? Sure. But they also won the special teams battle, keeping the best power play in the postseason off the board in 10 minutes of man advantage. They bent at times in the game, but they didn’t break, and they live to play another day.
What didn’t work for Tampa Bay?
Too many missed opportunities to put the Canadiens away. Those power-less power plays. Shots that rang off the goal cage. Their top two lines kept off the score sheet, despite some great looks. There isn’t going to be a lot of panic here with the series still 3-1 in their favor. But they just threw their opponent a lifeline — an opponent that’s already rallied from one significant deficit in this postseason.
The goals
Montreal 1-0: Josh Anderson (Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield) | 15:39, first period
🚨 JOSH ANDERSON
1-0 #GOHABSGO
🎥 @NHLonNBCSports pic.twitter.com/zmjgmIUjxc— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
Everything that hadn’t been going right for Montreal went right on this play. The Lightning were caught in a bad change, the kind of mistake they’d avoided this series. Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme mixed up his lines to get more offense, and got the first point of the series out of Anderson thanks to another immaculate play by Suzuki. He waited out a sliding David Savard and found Anderson for the quick shot that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy for the critical first goal of the game and his fourth of the playoffs.
Tampa Bay 1-1: Barclay Goodrow (Ryan McDonagh, Blake Coleman) | 17:20, second period
TIE GAME
🚨 Barclay Goodrow #GoBolts
1-1
🎥 @NHLonNBCSports pic.twitter.com/65Jn6ccB1W— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
What a sequence for Ryan McDonagh. He breaks up a Jeff Petry outlet pass to keep the puck in the Canadiens’ zone. He goes right to the net where Carey Price kicked out a Blake Coleman shot on goal. McDonagh outworked Petry for the rebound and sent a perfect backhand pass to Goodrow for an open-net goal, his second of the playoffs. Incredible work that gave the Lightning new life.
Montreal 2-1: Alexander Romanov (Jake Evans) | 8:48, third period
🚨 ALEXANDER ROMANOV!!!!!!!!!!!!
2-1 #GOHABSGO
🎥 @NHLonNBCSports pic.twitter.com/VKgVbI5IcP— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
Two more additions to the Canadiens’ lineup pay dividends. Evans, who hadn’t played since Game 1, passing the puck to Romanov, the rookie sent a shot that beat Vasilevskiy thanks to a well-timed screen from Artturi Lehkonen. It was Romanov’s first career goal. He becomes the youngest defenseman in Canadiens history to score a goal in the Stanley Cup Final.
Tampa Bay 2-2: Pat Maroon (Mathieu Joseph, Tyler Johnson) | 13:48, third period
TIE GAME
🚨 Pat Maroon #GoBolts
2-2
🎥 @NHLonNBCSports pic.twitter.com/5lYyH0AeRo— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
The Lightning responded with a goal generated by their fourth line, and Montreal continued its series-long tradition of turning the puck over for Tampa Bay goals. This time it was Tyler Toffoli being unable to keep the puck in the attacking zone, allowing Mathieu Joseph to skate out with the puck on a 2-on-1. Romanov made a rookie mistake in allowing the pass to get through, and Pat Maroon tallied his second goal in the postseason to knot the game up.
Montreal 3-2: Josh Anderson (Cole Caufield) | 3:57, overtime
0:37
Josh Anderson’s overtime goal gives the Canadiens a 3-2 win over the Lightning in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
After the Canadiens killed off the double-minor against Shea Weber, they found new life in the Stanley Cup Final on Anderson’s second goal of the night. Full marks to Anderson on this play, as his speedy skating down left wing set up the play, his one-handed pass to Caufield created a chance, and then his quick tap of the puck past Vasilevskiy before defenseman Jan Rutta could recover gave Montreal the win.
Quote of the night
“We understood the hole that we were in, but we just kind of talked about it. Find a way to win one game here, really simplify your mindset. It’s going to be the same thing next game. Put this one behind us as soon as we leave the rink and come with that same mentality and win one hockey game. We’ve kind of been through this already in the first round against Toronto. You really simplify that mindset, and hopefully you get to fight one more day.”
— Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher
Kill of the night
Montreal’s penalty kill had an incredible night, although on a few chances it also got a friendly bounce off a goal post. The turning point of the game was when Shea Weber high-sticked Ondrej Palat, cutting him and giving Tampa Bay a four-minute power play at 18:59 of the third period. But Montreal disrupted and shut down that power play, with a couple key stops from Carey Price, and then won the game moments later.
Ping of the night
#GoBolts Nikita Kucherov thisclose to putting his team up
🎥 @NHLonNBCSports pic.twitter.com/pdMuhUP43B— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
It doesn’t get much closer than Nikita Kucherov here, redirecting the puck right off the iron with Price’s net wide open. That was one of three great chances that deflected off the post for the Lightning in Game 4. “We really turned up our game. We had chances to end that sucker in regulation,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper.
Hit of the night
#GoHabsGo Josh Anderson hit on #GoBolts Victor Hedman
🎥 @NHLonNBCSports pic.twitter.com/A7ZAstb7ni— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
With due respect to Shea Weber, who tried to end Brayden Point on a few of his hits in Game 4, this sonic boom in back of the net by Anderson on Victor Hedman — a rather large person — was most memorable.
Sumo of the night
Bruh.
🎥 @NHLonNBCSports pic.twitter.com/ooLc0xwwyJ— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
This is the benefit of having the Stanley Cup Final in Canada. Instead of two people shuffling around the ice in their shoes, we have people wearing sumo suits on skates during the intermission.
Stat of the night
Maybe we should have seen this coming. Vince Masi of ESPN Stats & Information notes that the Canadiens are the third straight team to win Game 4 when down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final since the last sweep in 1998. The Canadiens have also won Game 4 when down 3-0 in a series in seven of 12 instances.
The big question for Game 5: Is this the mayor of Tampa’s fault?
So Tampa Mayor Jane Castor is either going to look like a mastermind or someone who angered the Hockey Gods and ruined the Lightning’s good vibes. She said on Sunday that “what we would like is for the Lightning to take it a little bit easy, to give the Canadiens just the smallest break, allow them to win one at home, and then bring it back to the Amalie Arena for the Final and the winning of the Stanley Cup.”
Well, they allowed them to win one at home. If the Lightning don’t close this thing out in Game 5, this is going to be a legendary mush.