Mishkin's Extra Shift: Game 2 - Lightning 3, Canadiens 1

Hungry to even the series at one game apiece, the Canadiens did many things well in Game Two. During the first period, they used their quick transition game to generate chances off multiple odd-man rushes. Then, over the final 40 minutes, they tilted the ice by dominating puck possession. Shot attempts over the final two periods were 53-26 in favor of Montreal. The second period was especially lopsided for the Canadiens, who repeatedly won puck battles and spent most of the period in possession of the puck in the offensive zone.

There's little doubt that the Canadiens executed well and earned their big possession advantage. But the Lightning also contributed to it. Their puck management was subpar for much of the night. They fumbled pucks. Their passes weren't tape-to-tape. And they made some poor decisions with the puck, making plays into high-traffic areas that led to turnovers.
But despite Montreal's strong performance and the Tampa Bay's shaky one, the Lightning still prevailed. Certainly, the play of Andrei Vasilevskiy (42 saves on 43 shots) was one big contributing factor. But so was how the Lightning dug in defensively when the Canadiens applied pressure. While the Lightning may have struggled with puck management and ceded possession, they protected the front of their net and kept many of the Montreal shot attempts to the outside. They also prevented the Canadiens from having second or third successive chances after Vasilevskiy made initial saves.
And while the Lightning didn't have nearly as much possession as Montreal, they still scored three goals. There were some terrific individual efforts on the final two of those tallies. Ryan McDonagh, Barclay Goodrow, and Blake Coleman teamed up on the eventual game-winner that just beat the clock late in the second and Ondrej Palat provided an insurance tally late in the third. But Montreal also made some significant, costly mistakes on both of those goals.
Even though they didn't have the puck for much of the final 40 minutes, the Lightning did own a possession advantage in the first. Some of that was tied to two early power play chances for Tampa Bay. The first PP was a quiet one for the Lightning, as the Habs used an aggressive approach to dislodge puck and get them down the ice. The second PP was more dangerous, as the Lightning moved the puck around the offensive zone and set up shot attempts. Carey Price made two saves on Nikita Kucherov during the kill and Brayden Point narrowly missed a shot from the slot.
Late in the frame, the Canadiens received a four-minute power play after McDonagh high-sticked Philip Danault just as a four-on-four began. Prior to that, Montreal's best looks had come off rush counters. On four separate occasions, Montreal's line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Tyler Toffoli had gotten loose up the ice. Vasilevskiy poke-checked the puck away from Suzuki on the first, made successive saves on all three players during the second rush chance, and finally, denied Toffoli and Suzuki on the back-to-back rush chances. Even though the Canadiens would later dominate possession, these first period looks were some of the best they created in the entire game.
The Canadiens carried their long power play into the start of the second period and generated a good chance right off the bat. Vasilevskiy stopped a Suzuki shot from the slot to keep the game scoreless.
Even though the Canadiens didn't score on the four-minute man advantage, they gained momentum from it. Action for much of the rest of the period took place in the Tampa Bay defensive zone. Montreal was quicker to loose pucks, won nearly every battle, and applied consistent pressure. But Vasilevskiy was rock solid in stopping initial Montreal shots and often didn't allow any rebounds. When there were loose pucks in front of the net, Lightning defenders did well to tie up Montreal forwards so there were no point blank shot attempts.
Still, during the opening 16 and a half minutes of the second period, the Lightning were outshot, 16-2. The first of those two Lightning shots came from Erik Cernak, a point shot that Carey Price easily saw and stopped. But the second one got past him. During one of the rare offensive zone shifts the Lightning had during this segment in the game, the line of Anthony Cirelli, Tyler Johnson (taking the spot of an injured Alex Killorn), and Steven Stamkos worked the puck into the Montreal end. Cirelli grabbed a loose puck behind the net and fed Jan Rutta at the right point. Rutta skated to the right circle and slipped it to Johnson in the right corner. Johnson curled back to the right circle and passed the puck to Cirelli, who was covering the right point for Rutta. With Rutta positioned in the high slot and screening Price, Cirelli wristed a shot to the net that hit off Price and deflected into the net at 6:40.
The one Montreal shot that got past Vasilevskiy in the period (and the game) came during the Canadiens' third power play chance. The Lightning won a d-zone face-off, but it wasn't clean win. McDonagh nudged the puck with his stick to get it away from two pressuring Montreal players. It slid to Suzuki in the high slot. His backhander deflected off both Cirelli and McDonagh - similar to Ben Chiarot's Game One goal - and went into the Lightning net at 10:36, tying the game at one.
Following Suzuki's goal, the Habs kept up the pressure. They posted the next six shots on net - Vasilevskiy made tough saves on a Josh Anderson attempt and a Brendan Gallagher tip. But when Joel Armia took a high-sticking penalty in the offensive zone at 16:38, the Lightning went on their third power play and got to spend some time in the offensive zone. Price made excellent saves on Point and Stamkos, and then, just as the penalty ended, on Pat Maroon.
With time winding down in the period, it appeared that the teams would head to the locker room deadlocked at one. Instead, they grabbed the lead back with Coleman's highlight-reel goal. His "Superman" tally was reminiscent of his goal in Game Two of the 2020 Second Round series against Boston. And he scored a similar type of goal while with the New Jersey Devils. This one came officially with 1.1 seconds left in the period. There were three great plays made on the goal. First, McDonagh stepped up in the neutral zone and intercepted a pass from Danault. He fed it towards Goodrow at the offensive blue line. Chiarot tried to poke the puck away, but instead, Goodrow maneuvered it behind Chiarot and skated past him. That turned the play into a two-on-one rush. From the bottom of the right circle, Goodrow slid the puck past Shea Weber. Danault, hustling back in the play, was unable to deflect it away from Coleman, who dove forward and lifted it over Price's right pad and into the net.
Not only did the play feature the great plays by McDonagh, Goodrow, and Coleman, it also included several crucial Montreal errors. The turnover in the neutral zone. Chiarot's decision not to back up and keep the play in front of him. And Weber's inability to block the pass across.
The Coleman goal completely changed the complexion of the third period, as the Lightning were able to take a lead into the intermission. Compared to the second, the third was a better overall period for the Lightning. They worked pucks in deep to the Montreal end more often than they had in the middle stanza. They also generated some excellent chances - Coleman had two glorious looks from the slot that Price stopped. But the Lightning still ceded lots of possession. The Canadiens continued to spend a lot of time in the offensive zone. But as they did in the second, the Lightning defended hard in front of Vasilevskiy (who made 14 more saves in the third).
With under four and a half minutes left, the Lightning capitalized on another Montreal turnover. From behind his own net, Joel Edmundson tried to reverse the puck to Jeff Petry. Price was expecting the pass to go in the other direction. Palat read the pass, stole the puck, and quickly shot it off Price's skate and into the net. Palat's goal made the score 3-1. And that's the way it finished.
This was a game in which the Canadiens dictated play for much of the night. But a combination of Vasilevskiy's goaltending, the Lightning's ability to dig in defensively without the puck, and some key offensive plays at crucial times, helped tip the outcome in the Lightning's favor.
For Game Three on Friday, however, the Lightning know they'll need to be better, particularly with their puck play and battle level.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Phil Esposito):
1. Andrei Vasilevskiy - Lightning. 42 saves.
2. Blake Coleman - Lightning. GWG.
3. Barclay Goodrow - Lightning. Assist.