The frustrating aspect for the Lightning was not just the amount of penalties, but that four were taken in the offensive zone, which coach Jon Cooper deemed as unnecessary lapses of judgment.<\/p>\n
“Just look at (the penalties),” Cooper said\u00a0postgame. “That’s not over aggression; that was, like, stupidity … a lot of them. That was a game we just gave them an opportunity to win.”<\/p>\n
When asked about Cooper\u2019s remarks Monday,\u00a0defenseman Darren Raddysh<\/a>\u00a0said, \u201cI think you just don\u2019t take those penalties. We don\u2019t give them chances and maybe it\u2019s a different outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Tampa Bay was solid at even strength; it held Montreal to one goal and 10 shots at 5-on-5, including limiting 51-goal scorer Cole Caufield<\/a>\u00a0to just one shot on goal at even strength. Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki<\/a>, who led them during the regular season with 101 points (29 goals, 72 assists), had two assists Sunday but did not have a shot on goal.<\/p>\n But the mental lapses at the end of the second and third period were what inevitably did the Lightning in. At 18:32 of the second, Conor Geekie<\/a>\u00a0took a high-sticking penalty and Slafkovsky scored on the power play with 24 seconds remaining in the period to tie it 2-2.<\/p>\n The beginning of the end for Tampa Bay came with 21 seconds remaining in regulation when Jake Guentzel<\/a> clipped Kaiden Guhle<\/a>\u00a0in the side of the head with his stick while trying to execute a redirection. Slafkovsky later closed out the game with his third power-play goal.<\/p>\n