Gage Goncalves scored at 9:02 of overtime Friday night at the Bell Centre, lifting the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 1-0 win over the Canadiens in Game 6 and sending the series to a deciding Game 7.
Jakub Dobes stopped 32 shots before allowing the rebound that Goncalves buried, while Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 30 at the other end to preserve Tampa Bay’s season. The Lightning now get a seventh game for the 11th time in franchise history. The Canadiens will do it for the 25th time.
This series has been as tight as it gets. The teams split six one-goal games, and four went to overtime, with neither side able to create much separation. Cole Caufield was still stuck on one goal in the series, and Montreal needed Phillip Danault to save a puck inches from crossing the line in the second period just to keep the game level.
Tampa Bay’s winning goal came from a player who has been part of the organization’s long view. Goncalves, drafted by the Lightning in the second round in 2020, finished the job when the rebound fell his way. It was the kind of ending that fit a game decided by inches, and by two goaltenders who kept refusing to give an inch.
The result also extends a pattern that has defined Tampa Bay’s playoff run for nearly a decade. The Lightning are now 17-14 in 31 all-time potential elimination games and own a 7-3 record in Game 7s, including 4-1 on home ice. This was their 38th road playoff victory since 2016, the most in the league over that span. The Canadiens, meanwhile, are 15-9 in deciding games overall and 7-6 on the road.
The matchup came into the postseason with plenty of symmetry, too. Both teams finished the regular season with 106 points, and the last six meetings between them produced nothing comfortable. Now the pressure shifts to Benchmark International Arena on Sunday, where Tampa Bay will try to finish the job and Montreal will try to survive a game it has not seen in the opening round against Toronto in 2021.
For one night, though, the story belonged to the goaltenders and to Goncalves, who gave Tampa Bay the only goal it needed after Vasilevskiy did enough to make it stand. As one account of the game put it, he stopped 30 shots and was simply brilliant, proof of why he is considered a Vézina Trophy finalist.