TAMPA \u2014 The Montreal Canadiens have an early series lead on the road \u2014 and they have Juraj Slafkovsky to thank.<\/p>\n
Slafkovsky opened the playoffs with a hat trick Sunday, scoring the winner at 1:22 of overtime to lift the young Canadiens past the experienced Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in a riveting Game 1 of their first-round matchup.<\/p>\n
“He probably won us the game,\u201d Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes said. \u201cHe’s been so good for us. I feel like in a big moment he wants the puck, and he’s a big-time player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, he will do the same thing (in Game 2) on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slafkovsky took a pass from Lane Hutson at the left circle, spotted an opening and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy clean with a wrist shot to complete the hat trick.<\/p>\n
It was the type of shot he might have looked to pass up a couple of years ago, when he struggled to build confidence in the NHL under the weight of being the first overall pick in 2022. But this season, and especially Sunday, there was no hesitation.<\/p>\n
“The evolution of Slaf, I think, is almost the same as the evolution of our team,\u201d coach Martin St. Louis said. \u201cWe know what he’s capable of bringing Slaf, and that’s what he did tonight. He played to his identity. Not just the goals \u2014 he was physical, he won battles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a big game for him.”<\/p>\n
Slafkovsky, 22, became the third-youngest Canadien to score a playoff hat trick, behind Bernie Geoffrion and Howie Morenz, and the first in franchise history with three power-play goals in a post-season game since the NHL began tracking the stat in 1933-34.<\/p>\n
The six-foot-three, 225-pound winger also made his presence felt physically with three hits, including one just 27 seconds into the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust try to go out there and hit some guys to get myself into the game,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s good to set the tone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teammate Josh Anderson called Slafkovsky \u201cone of the best power forwards in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s taken so many great strides in the last couple of years, and you can see him just evolving into the player he is now,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cHe’s still so young. I mean, it’s going to be scary in a couple of years for him.<\/p>\n
“He’s brought it up a notch, like, this whole year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slafkovsky broke out this season with 30 goals and 73 points to shatter his previous career highs, taking another massive leap after his difficult rookie year in 2022-23 had some fans concerned he would become a so-called bust.<\/p>\n
His season also included a strong Olympic showing, with four goals and eight points at the Milan Cortina Games, leading underdog Slovakia to a fourth-place finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Olympics is kind of like a playoff series,\u201d he said. \u201cFor sure it helped my confidence. I had a lot of the puck and just tried to bring that here and help the team win games.\u201d<\/p>\n
He called scoring the overtime winner and completing the hat trick a \u201cnice\u201d feeling, but was already looking ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got to still focus, we\u2019ve got a game in two days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
CRANKY COOP<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper lamented his team\u2019s lack of discipline after the loss. The Lightning took five minor penalties, including two in the third period.<\/p>\n
The first led to Slafkovsky\u2019s second goal, giving the Canadiens a 3-2 lead. The second \u2014 a high-sticking penalty on Jake Guentzel \u2014 carried into overtime and set up the winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I have a problem with us,\u201d said Cooper, asked if he had a problem with the penalty calls. \u201cCome on, four offensive-zone penalties. Just look at them. That\u2019s not over-aggression, that\u2019s stupidity, a lot of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was on us. That was a game where we gave them an opportunity to win, and this is the Stanley Cup playoffs. \u2026 It\u2019s extremely disappointing the way we conducted ourselves and the amount of penalties we took.\u201d<\/p>\n
PLAYOFF JOSH<\/p>\n
While Cooper avoided criticizing the calls, Anderson thought the officials were a little to happy to blow the whistle on a night that featured 12 minor penalties and one double-minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you expect it to be a little bit different in the playoffs and kind of let us play hockey,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, you have no control over that really.”<\/p>\n
Anderson, looked upon to lead the Canadiens\u2019 physical presence come playoff time, was at the centre of the action Sunday.<\/p>\n
The six-foot-three, 226-pound bruiser delivered four hits and opened the scoring in the first period when Gage Goncalves\u2019 giveaway landed on his stick. In the second period, however, he sparked an unfortunate chain of events after being assessed a charging minor for his hit on defenceman Charle-Edouard D’Astous, who did not return.<\/p>\n
Darren Raddysh tied the game on the ensuing power play, and Brandon Hagel scored again 29 seconds later with the Canadiens visibly rattled.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA \u2014 The Montreal Canadiens have an early series lead on the road \u2014 and they have Juraj…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338,82],"class_list":["post-615921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}