Lightning on cusp of Stanley Cup, defeat Canadiens in Game 3 of Final

MONTREAL -- The Tampa Bay Lightning are one win from repeating as Stanley Cup champions after a 6-3 victory against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the Final at Bell Centre on Friday.

Tyler Johnson scored twice, Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov each had a goal and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves for Tampa Bay, which defeated the Dallas Stars in six games in the Cup Final last season.
"I know how fun it was last year when we won, so I want to do that again," Johnson said. "You don't know how many chances you're going to get, and anytime you get this close, you really feel it. I think winning last year makes you even want to win it more, and I think everyone kind of feels that way, and we're really excited.
"But there's still a lot more to do. We still have one more game [to win]. We know the fourth one's always the toughest and we're going to have to have a really good game."

Game 4 is here Monday.
Phillip Danault, Nick Suzuki and Corey Perry scored for Montreal, which hosted its first Cup Final game since June 9, 1993, when the Canadiens defeated the Los Angeles Kings in Game 5 at the Montreal Forum to win the Cup for an NHL-record 23rd time.
Carey Price made 24 saves for Montreal, which has been outscored 14-5 in the series, with Price allowing 13 goals on 79 shots (.835 save percentage).
"I can definitely play better," Price said. "It's just not good enough so far."

Teams that take a 3-0 lead in a best-of-7 Cup Final are 26-1 (.963) winning the series. The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings in 1942 after losing the first three games.
"We don't have a choice," Price said. "We've overcome adversity all season. Our backs are obviously against the wall, so we've got to start bringing our best."
Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme returned after missing six games and spending 14 days in quarantine following a positive COVID-19 test June 18. The Canadiens were 3-3 under assistant Luke Richardson during Ducharme's absence.
Jan Rutta became the first player in NHL history to score a goal in July, regular season or Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he put Tampa Bay up 1-0 at 1:52 of the first period with a high wrist shot from the right point.
Hedman made it 2-0 with a power-play goal on a slap shot from the top of the slot at 3:27. He became the first NHL player to score a goal in every month.

After Cole Caufield's shot went off the left post at 7:24, the Canadiens gained some momentum, and Danault cut the lead to 2-1 at 11:16 when he scored his first of the playoffs on a wrist shot from the left side as Brendan Gallagher drove to the net.
"We got a power play and scored right away, so a tremendous start," Hedman said. "Then I think they kind of took over in the first. We came out with the lead, so it was a good start and I thought we set the tone. But I thought it got better in the second and it was more consistent on our part."
Kucherov made it 3-1 with his eighth goal of the postseason at 1:40 of the second period. Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak hit Ondrej Palat at the Canadiens blue line with a stretch pass to set up a 2-on-0, and Kucherov scored with a backhand.
Kucherov got his 24th assist on Hedman's goal and leads the playoffs with 32 points.
"We have a game plan and everybody's buying in and everybody's doing their job," Kucherov said. "And when everybody's doing their job, it makes it easier. And we want to play a full 60 minutes the right way, and that's what we're doing right now."
Johnson put Tampa Bay up 4-1 at 3:33, but Suzuki drew Montreal within 4-2 at 18:04 with a wrist shot under Vasilevskiy's right pad from the right side.
Johnson scored his second of the game at 15:19 of the third period to make it 5-2. Perry cut it to 5-3 at 15:58 with Price pulled for an extra skater, but Blake Coleman scored into an empty net at 16:48 for the 6-3 final.
"We put ourselves in a hole early, and it's tough to dig yourself out of a hole against a team like that, that plays pretty stingy," Canadiens captain Shea Weber said.
NOTES: Vasilevskiy has won 11 straight games against the Canadiens, regular season and playoffs combined, since Feb. 24, 2018, the third-longest streak by a goalie against Montreal. Turk Broda of the Maple Leafs (Dec. 9, 1939-Jan. 23, 1941) and Alec Connell of the Ottawa Senators (Feb. 28, 1925-Feb. 22, 1927) each had 12 consecutive wins against the Canadiens. … The Kings are the only other team to take a 3-0 series lead in the Cup Final in the past 22 years. Los Angeles did so twice, in a six-game win against the New Jersey Devils in 2012 and in a five-game win against the New York Rangers in 2014.