Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots and the Lightning beat the Canadiens 1-0 in overtime at the Bell Centre on Friday night, forcing a decisive Game 7 after Gage Goncalves scored at 9:02 of the extra period.
Goncalves, who was drafted by Tampa Bay in the second round, 62nd overall, in 2020, scored the first playoff goal of his career on a rebound after Jakub Dobes had turned aside 32 shots and finished with a.970 save percentage. The win sends the series back to Benchmark International Arena on Sunday.
It was the kind of game that matched the rest of the series. The six contests were all decided by one goal, and four went to overtime, a tight grind between teams that both finished the regular season with 106 points. Tampa Bay and Montreal never gave the matchup any margin for error, and Friday’s finish left nothing settled until Goncalves found space late in overtime.
For Vasilevskiy, the shutout fit the way the Lightning have built their playoff identity over the past decade. Tampa Bay recorded its 38th road playoff victory since 2016, and the result gave the club a chance to play a seventh game for the 11th time in franchise history. The Lightning are 17-14 in 31 all-time potential elimination games, with a 7-3 record in Game 7s and a 4-1 home record in those games.
Montreal, meanwhile, now heads into a deciding game for the 25th time in franchise history. The Canadiens are 15-9 overall in deciding games and 7-6 on the road, but Friday ended a run that had made home ice look almost automatic in these situations. The Canadiens had been 7-1 all-time at home in Game 6 before Vasilevskiy and the Lightning left with the kind of win that can flip a series in one bounce.
The close nature of the matchup has left the decisive game feeling earned rather than forced. Vasilevskiy, a Vézina Trophy finalist, gave Tampa Bay the stop it needed when the game tightened, and Goncalves finished the first chance that broke through. On Sunday, the series that spent six games refusing to separate will finally have to do it once.
