TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Juraj Slafkovsky scored his third power-play goal 1:22 into overtime and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Game 1 of their first-round series on Sunday night.
Slafkovsky fired a snap shot from the left circle that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to the far side for his first career postseason hat trick.
“It’s pretty nice. I like that feeling,” he said. “Obviously, we don’t want to go to overtime. Hopefully we close out games before that. But now we have to focus on the next game.”
Game 2 is Tuesday night at Benchmark International Arena, where Tampa Bay has lost nine of its last 10 home games in the postseason. The Lightning are 1-11 in their last 12 overtime games in the playoffs.
“We took four offensive zone penalties,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “That wasn’t over-aggression. That was stupidity. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. This isn’t game 62. That’s extremely disappointing.”
Josh Anderson also had a goal for Montreal, and rookie goalie Jakub Dobes made 20 saves.
“His style of play and energy and speed and physicality is perfect for playoff hockey,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said of Anderson. “He had a big night for us.”
Brandon Hagel scored two goals and Darren Raddysh also scored for Tampa Bay.
The Lightning have been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round three straight seasons after falling two wins shy of a three-peat in 2022.
The Canadiens, coached by Lightning icon and Hockey Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis, are seeking their first Stanley Cup since winning their NHL record 24th in 1993. They haven’t won a playoff series since the Lightning beat them in the Cup Final in 2021.
Hagel’s power-play goal — a tip-in off a precise pass by Jake Guentzel 8:58 into the third — tied it at 3-3 a few minutes after Slafkovsky put Montreal ahead.
Slafkovsky’s shot from the high slot slid under Vasilevskiy’s left pad for a short-lived lead. He one-timed a perfect seam pass from Ivan Demidov into the net from the right circle to make it 2-2 in the final minute of the second.
Raddysh tied it at 1 with a powerful slap shot in the second. The Lightning went ahead 2-1 just 29 seconds later when Hagel picked up a loose puck from the side of the net and backhanded a shot past Dobes.
Montreal’s fourth line gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead in the first when Anderson flipped a top-shelf shot into an open net.
Anderson also had a goal overturned by video review midway through the second period. He deflected Mike Matheson’s slap shot past Vasilevskiy but it was waved off because his stick was above the crossbar.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl