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The Tampa Bay Lightning rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series on Sunday, leveling the series at two games apiece.
Montreal’s depth defenceman Max Crozier, making his playoff debut, delivered a thunderous hit on Tampa Bay’s Juraj Slafkovsky at centre ice with just over two minutes left in the second period. The Canadiens led 2-0 at the time and looked poised to extend their series advantage, but Crozier’s hit energized the Lightning.
“That was a big-time hit,” Lightning forward Jake Guentzel said. “The bench got fired up, and sometimes something like that can change the game.”
Indeed, the momentum shifted swiftly. With 54 seconds left in the second period and during 4-on-4 play, Guentzel cut Montreal’s lead in half by finishing a cross-ice pass from teammate J.J. Moser.
In the third period, Brandon Hagel scored twice for Tampa Bay, first on the power play at 1:40 after an Oliver Kapanen high stick penalty, then again at 4:53 to grab the lead when a Nikita Kucherov shot deflected off him and into the net. Kucherov and Moser each assisted twice, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves in a penalty-heavy game featuring 17 minor infractions.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper credited Crozier’s hit as a catalyst. “If the Crozier hit is a dagger, that really helped,” Cooper said. “We score in the last minute of the second and the first minute of the third, and all of a sudden the game’s completely changed. You’ve kind of taken the crowd out of it a bit.”
Slafkovsky was knocked down hard but returned to the ice in the third period to chants of “Slaf-kov-sky!” from the Montreal crowd.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis pointed to Tampa Bay’s goal at 4-on-4 late in the second as a key turning point. “Their goal at 4-on-4 hurt. We were in a good position. There wasn’t much time left in the second, it would have been good to get out of there with a 2-0 lead. Goals at the end of periods like that often swing games,” St. Louis said.
Defenceman Kaiden Guhle dismissed the idea that Crozier’s hit swung momentum, saying, “It’s just big hits happening in these types of games. Gotta find a way to come back after that.”
For the Canadiens, Cole Caufield and Zachary Bolduc notched the goals. Bolduc broke the scoreless deadlock at 10:06 of the second after a stretch pass from Guhle. He battled against Lightning defenceman Darren Raddysh as Vasilevskiy’s poke check bounced off his chest into the net. Caufield extended Montreal’s lead on the power play at 6:31, scoring his first playoff goal of the season after a 51-goal regular campaign.
Despite surrendering the lead, Montreal had chances to respond, including killing a lengthy 5-on-3 penalty and earning a 6-on-4 advantage with the net empty late in the third, but failed to tie the game.
“We didn’t play a good enough third, I would say,” St. Louis admitted. “We take three penalties, it’s a veteran team, talented. They’re good at getting us to take penalties.”
The series now returns to Tampa Bay for Game 5 on Wednesday, with everything to play for as the first-round battle comes down to a best-of-three. The matchup features a clash of a seasoned Tampa Bay team — Stanley Cup champions in 2020 and 2021 — against a young Montreal squad aiming to follow a similar path to success.
