TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning find themselves facing potential playoff elimination following yet another disappointing home defeat in the postseason.
Star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy surrendered an unusual goal on the same day he earned a Vezina Trophy nomination, while Tampa Bay struggled in the faceoff circle and couldn’t capitalize on scoring chances in a 3-2 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday evening. The loss puts the Lightning down 3-2 in the playoff series.
Friday night’s Game 6 takes place in Montreal, where Tampa Bay must win to stay alive. The Lightning are working to prevent their fourth consecutive first-round playoff exit since coming up short in their Stanley Cup three-peat attempt in 2022.
“We got to drag them back here,” forward Corey Perry said. “You know it’s going to be a hostile environment. It’s loud but block it out and just go play. We found a way last game there. We got to do it again.”
While Tampa Bay managed to win Game 4 on Montreal’s home ice, they’ve now dropped 10 of their past 12 playoff contests at home.
Alexandre Texier netted the decisive goal just 1:06 into the final period with a slap shot from the left circle that deflected off Vasilevskiy’s glove and slipped past one of hockey’s elite goaltenders.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper pointed to defensive breakdowns as the root cause of the goal-against.
“It stems way before that. It doesn’t stem from when Texier gets down the ice. It stems from the change and how we went about it and the mistakes we made on the way there,” Cooper said. “Forever, all Vasy does is bail us out of those. The rare time sometimes he doesn’t. He should’ve never got that deep into our zone and he got a lot on it. It wasn’t like Vasy got beat. He had it and it took a Montreal bounce, unfortunately for us.”
Montreal controlled the faceoff battle decisively, capturing 66% of draws. In this tightly contested series where all five games have been decided by a single goal and the opening three required overtime, every possession carries weight.
“Possession is huge,” forward Brayden Point said. “There’s not a lot of room out there. Starting with the puck is massive.”
Tampa Bay fired 40 shots at rookie netminder Jakub Dobes but managed to solve him only twice, with goals from Dominic James and Jake Guentzel.
The Lightning saw shots clang off the goalpost and crossbar, while Nikita Kucherov watched the puck hop over his stick with an empty net beckoning.
“We need other guys to score and haven’t been able to do it,” Point said. “It is frustrating. Just got to keep doing the right things and keep working hard.”
Tampa Bay has now dropped their previous two elimination contests. Should they manage another victory in Montreal, they would return home for Game 7 on Sunday.
“I understand the next game is a potential elimination game but the last game we played there, we lose that one and we’re down 3-1 (and) you’re really chasing the series,” Cooper said. “They’ve been in that building twice now and have a pretty good feeling of what to expect. How it’s going to go? I can’t say for sure but I’ll bet we play better than we did tonight.”
