It was another hotly contested affair between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning, but in the end, the Canadiens signed a 3-2 win, and will have the opportunity to wrap up the series on Thursday night.
The Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning were back at it for Game 5 on Wednesday night. For the first time in this series, Martin St-Louis decided to bring a new player into his lineup: the 33-year-old battle-tested veteran, Brendan Gallagher. Ahead of the game, the Habs released a lineup that they didn’t really plan on using, which was St-Louis keeping his cards close to his chest, but he put his cards on the table at the opening draw, sending Juraj Slafkovsky out with Jake Evans and Ivan Demidov.
While the Buffalo Sabres’ crowd charmed Canada by singing its national anthem on Tuesday night, for a third game in a row, the singer chosen by Tampa wasn’t exactly up to the task. Not that that’s what people are there to see, but it does make you wonder.
Gallagher’s Impactful Return
Gallagher had been waiting for his opportunity since the start of the series, and he wasn’t going to miss it. With just three minutes gone in the game, he went hard to the net and picked up the scraps of a great individual effort by Alex Newhook to give the Canadiens an early 1-0 lead. In the first frame, he only spent 2:24 on the ice, but every time he was there, he was visible and managed to land two hits.
Then, in the second frame, he only added two minutes and 15 seconds to his tally, and he added another hit and late in the period, came in at full speed to pick Andrei Vasilevskiy’s pocket and feed Phillip Danault in front of the net, but he couldn’t put it in.
The veteran played a total of 6:48 across 10 shifts on the night, and all were solid, disciplined minutes. He didn’t extend any of his shifts, and it was a winning formula.
Dobes’ Extracurriculars
Jakub Dobes has been playing aggressively all series long, and, in most games, it has served him very well. Early in Game 5, the Canadiens had a four-minute power play, and the netminder was their best player on that sequence. When the puck came deep into the Canadiens zone, he came out and stickhandled patiently with it, keeping it away from none other than Brandon Hagel before calmly passing it. A few seconds later, he found himself in possession of the puck and launched a rocket of a transition pass.
He’s also very aware of what’s going on around his net and made a good poke check as the Bolts were trying to catch him with a wraparound, without tripping the player. While what you’re mainly looking for from a goalie is making the saves behind the posts, it’s little plays like that that can give you the upper hand on a play that can turn out to be very important.
Still, in the dying seconds, it was his ability to make the important saves that allowed the Canadiens to fly back home with a 3-2 win and a 3-2 series lead. The masked man finished the game with 38 saves on 40 shots for a .950 save percentage. You can’t ask for much more from a goaltender.
Bouncing Back
The Canadiens could have been deflated when Dominic James scored on a two-on-one seconds after the referees missed a couple of penalty calls, but they weren’t. Just 11 seconds later, Kirby Dach gave the Habs their one-goal lead back, allowing them to move right along and let go of the frustration.
The big Albertan who had a great bounce-back game in Game 3 was much less visible in Game 4, but in Tampa, he certainly made his presence felt at the right time.
St-Louis Picked Up Experience Too
After sticking to his guns about his first time for the first four games, the Canadiens’ coach finally decided it was time to mix things up. He brought the energetic and forechecking machine, Josh Anderson, to the first line and put Slafkovsky with Demidov and Evans on the second line, creating a new challenge for Jon Cooper. Furthermore, instead of trying to give his guys rhythm by sticking to his combinations, he made on-the-fly adjustments a la Cooper.
When the Lightning had tired players on the ice, he sent out his usual first line, and the Bolts were struggling to keep up with them and cut their space. While they didn’t score, they produced good pressure, which carried over to the next line. Unfortunately, the sequence ended with a bad decision by Mike Matheson, who missed the net with a high shot. The puck bounced off the glass and sent Tampa off on a two-on-one, on which they tied up the game.
Once the Canadiens had regained the lead through Alexandre Texier early in the third, St-Louis also started deploying Danault alongside Suzuki, making his line more defensively responsible.
The two teams will meet again at 7:00 PM on Friday night, at the Bell Centre, and chances are, we’ll be in for yet another tight battle.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.
Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable on The Hockey News.
Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here.