{"id":637802,"date":"2026-04-30T04:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637802\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T04:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:15:08","slug":"alexandre-texiers-winner-gives-montreal-canadiens-3-2-series-lead-with-game-5-victory-over-tampa-bay-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637802\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandre Texier\u2019s winner gives Montreal Canadiens 3-2 series lead with Game 5 victory over Tampa Bay Lightning"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 (AP) \u2014 Alexandre Texier<\/a> broke a tie 1:06 into the third period and the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> beat the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> 3-2 on Wednesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.<\/p>\n

Rookie Jakub Dobes<\/a> stopped 38 shots to help Montreal move within a victory of advancing for the first time since losing to the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2021.<\/p>\n

Brendan Gallagher<\/a> got his first goal in his first game this series and Kirby Dach<\/a> also scored for the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

Game 6 is Friday night in Montreal, where the teams split Games 3 and 4. All five games have been decided by one goal, including overtime in the first three.<\/p>\n

Dominic James<\/a> scored his first career playoff goal and Jake Guentzel<\/a> also connected one for the Lightning. They are one loss from being eliminated in the first round for the fourth straight season.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay has lost 10 of its last 12 home games in the postseason despite 460 consecutive sellouts.<\/p>\n

Texier took a long pass from Lane Hutson<\/a>, skated into the left circle and ripped a shot that bounced off Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/a>\u2019s glove and into the net for a 3-2 lead early in the third. <\/p>\n

The Canadiens jumped ahead three minutes into the game when Gallagher wristed in a rebound after Vasilevskiy kicked away Alex Newhook<\/a>\u2019s backhander. Gallagher was a healthy scratch the first four games and the 14-year veteran spent time giving the young players advice. <\/p>\n

Seconds after James blasted a slap shot past Dobes on a 2-on-1 breakaway, the Canadiens regained the lead. Dach skated down the left side, went around a defender, lost the puck, kicked it from his skate to his stick in front of the net and put it in.<\/p>\n

Dach deactivated his Instagram account after receiving online criticism because his defensive lapse led to the winning goal in overtime in Game 2. He had a goal and an assist in Montreal\u2019s 3-2 overtime win the next game.<\/p>\n

Guentzel fired a slap shot between Dobes\u2019 legs on another 2-on-1 breakaway to tie it at 2 late in the second. Guentzel has the best playoff goal-scoring ratio among American-born players in NHL history with 43 goals in 79 games.<\/p>\n

The Lightning killed off a four-minute disadvantage after Ryan McDonagh<\/a>\u2019s double minor for high-sticking in the first period. The Canadiens managed just one shot on net during the power play.<\/p>\n

Montreal had better scoring chances on two of Tampa Bay\u2019s power plays in the second period. Vasilevskiy stopped Jake Evans<\/a> on a short-handed breakaway on one of them. ___<\/p>\n

AP NHL playoffs: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/p>\n

Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 (AP) \u2014 Alexandre Texier broke a tie 1:06 into the third period and the Montreal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,78846,82,95645],"class_list":["post-637802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal-canadiens-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-8","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-lightning-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637802","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=637802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}