{"id":646948,"date":"2026-05-04T10:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/646948\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:16:12","slug":"canadiens-outlast-lightning-2-1-in-game-7-to-win-thrilling-1st-round-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/646948\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens outlast Lightning 2-1 in Game 7 to win thrilling 1st-round series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSometimes you win the game and not the score,\u201d Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s Game 7, there\u2019s no moral victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Each game of the series was decided by one goal and four went to overtime. The score was tied or within one goal for all but six minutes in the seven games. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough building to play in, it\u2019s a chaotic environment out there,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been a good road team all season. We knew we had to come in here and anything can happen in a Game 7.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lightning were eliminated in the first round for the fourth straight season after falling two wins short of a Stanley Cup three-peat in 2022.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay\u2019s tough defense held the Canadiens without a shot for nearly 27 minutes from the first period into the third and just four through two periods. Brandon Hagel made an outstanding, sliding stick save with an open net in the final minute but the Lightning couldn\u2019t get the tying goal during a 6-on-5 and 6-on-4 for the final six seconds.<\/p>\n

Montreal got a couple lucky bounces to score twice on its first eight shots on goal.<\/p>\n

After Lane Hutson fired a slap shot that went wide and bounced back out, Newhook backhanded the puck<\/a> out of the air and in off Andrei Vasilevskiy\u2019s pad and his backside.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat hand-eye coordination by Newy,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a big-game player. I\u2019m definitely happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing in front of their 461st consecutive sellout crowd and hundreds more fans watching from Thunder Alley outside Benchmark International Arena, the Lightning lost for the 11th time in their last 13 playoff games at home, including three times in this series. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t lose three at home,\u201d Hagel said.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens didn\u2019t have a shot on net in the second period despite two power-play chances. They became the first team to have zero shots in a playoff period since Pittsburgh in Game 1 of the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals against Nashville.<\/p>\n

Dominic James tipped in Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous\u2019 one-timer from just inside the blue line to tie it at 1 on a power play in the second period. <\/p>\n

Suzuki opened the scoring 1:21 left in the first. After scoring 29 goals in the regular season, Suzuki needed a lucky bounce to get one. His redirection of Kaiden Guhle\u2019s slap shot was heading wide but the puck hit Lightning defenseman J.J. Moser and went in. <\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s Martin St. Louis, a Hockey Hall of Famer whose No. 26 is retired by the Lightning, became the fifth player to appear in a Game 7 for a team and coach against them in another.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n

Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSometimes you win the game and not the score,\u201d Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s Game 7,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-646948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646948","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=646948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}