Montreal Canadiens v. Tampa Bay Lightning – Game 1
Game Recap:
We’re finally here at the Stanley Cup Final as we see the Tampa Bay Lightning host the Montreal Canadiens as they look to win the Cup for the second year in a row. As for the Canadiens they play in the Final for the first time in 28 years, and look to win the Cup for a 25th time and first since 1993. In the first period both teams would play with a fast pace, and we would see some chances on both sides. However, it would be the Bolts opening up the scoring as Erik Cernak would redirect a Ondrej Palat pass over the shoulder of Carey Price to take the 1-0 lead. Later in the period the Habs would get the first powerplay opportunity when Barclay Goodrow would be called for cross checking, but the Habs would not be able to register a shot on goal as they would squander the opportunity to tie the game at one. In the final minute of the period Ben Chiarot would rough up Nikita Kucherov to put the Bolts on the powerplay. The period would end with Tampa up 1-0 with time left on the poowerplay to start the second period.
To start the second period the Canadiens would do a spectacular job at killing the remaining time to Chiarot’s penalty. However, a little over the five minutes into the period Yanni Gourde would deflect a Blake Coleman shot to grow the Bolts lead to two. Throughout the rest of the period the Lightning would dominate the play, but with a little over two minutes left in the second Chiarot would unleash a bomb to get the Habs on the board and cut Tampa’s lead back to one.
In the third period the dynamic duo would come alive as Nikita Kucherov would score a pair of goals and Brayden Point would net two more assists to grow the Bolts lead to three. The Canadiens would get a powerplay opportunity later in the period, but they would not be able to sustain any real pressure on the extra man advantage. Then the Habs would put themselves into penalty trouble as they would take retaliatory penalties which would lead to Steven Stamkos scoring on the powerplay to give the Lightning the dominate 5-1 victory and the 1-0 series lead.
Lineups:
Montreal Canadiens:
Artturi Lehkonen — Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher
Tyler Toffoli — Nick Suzuki — Cole Caufield
Paul Byron — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Josh Anderson
Corey Perry — Eric Staal — Jake Evans
Ben Chiarot — Shea Weber
Joel Edmundson — Jeff Petry
Erik Gustafsson — Jon Merrill
Carey Price
Jake Allen
Scratched: Cale Fleury, Alexander Romanov, Lukas Vejdemo, Laurent Dauphin, Jesse Ylonen, Alex Belzile, Xavier Ouellet, Otto Leskinen, Michael Frolik, Brett Kulak, Tomas Tatar, Cayden Primeau, Charlie Lindgren, Michael McNiven
Injured: None
COVID-19 protocol: Joel Armia
Tampa Bay Lightning:
Ondrej Palat — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn — Anthony Cirelli — Steven Stamkos
Barclay Goodrow — Yanni Gourde — Blake Coleman
Ross Colton — Tyler Johnson — Pat Maroon
Victor Hedman — Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev — David Savard
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Luke Schenn, Alex Barre-Boulet , Mathieu Joseph, Boris Katchouk, Taylor Raddysh, Gemel Smith, Mitchell Stephens, Daniel Walcott, Fredrik Claesson, Cal Foote, Ben Thomas, Christopher Gibson, Spencer Martin
Injured: None
First Period:
TB Goal – 6:19 – Erik Cernak (1) from Ondrej Palat (6) and Brayden Point (7)
TB Penalty – 15:21 – Barclay Goodrow 2 minutes for Cross Checking
MON Penalty – 19:14 – Ben Chiarot 2 minutes for Roughing
| End of First | MON – 0 | TB – 1 |
| Shots | 5 | 7 |
| Faceoff Wins | 9 | 7 |
| Hits | 26 | 19 |
| Powerplay | 0/1 | 0/1 |
Second Period:
TB Goal – 5:47 – Yanni Gourde (6) from Blake Coleman (7) and Barclay Goodrow (2)
MON Goal – 17:40 – Ben Chiarot (1) from Jesperi Kotkaniemi (3) and Shea Weber (4)
| End of Second | MON – 1 | TB – 2 |
| Shots | 14 | 19 |
| Faceoff Wins | 17 | 18 |
| Hits | 44 | 40 |
| Powerplay | 0/1 | 0/1 |
Third Period:
TB Goal – 2:00 – Nikita Kucherov (6) from Mikhail Sergachev (3)
TB Penalty – 6:30 – Erik Cernak 2 minutes for Roughing
MON Penalty – 6:30 – Eric Staal 2 minutes for Roughing
TB Goal – 11:25 – Nikita Kucherov (7) from Brayden Point (8)
TB Penalty – 13:42 – Blake Coleman 2 minutes for Roughing
MON Penalty – 15:51 – Jesperi Kotkaniemi 2 minutes for High Sticking
MON Penalty – 17:20 – Joel Edmundson 2 minutes for Roughing
TB PPG – 18:50 – Steven Stamkos (8) from Nikita Kucherov (23) and Brayden Point (9)
| End of Third | MON – 1 | TB – 5 |
| Shots | 19 | 27 |
| Faceoff Wins | 26 | 26 |
| Hits | 58 | 57 |
| Powerplay | 0/2 | 1/3 |
The Xperience Hockey Talk 
One thought on “Lightning v. Canadiens – Bolts Dominate for Game 1 Victory”