Canadiens defeat Lightning in OT in Game 4 of Cup Final, extend series

MONTREAL -- Josh Anderson scored his second goal of the game at 3:57 of overtime, and the Montreal Canadiens avoided being swept in the Stanley Cup Final with a 3-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 at Bell Centre on Monday.

Anderson won it when he tapped in the rebound of Cole Caufield's attempt from the top of the crease.
"We didn't want to end it tonight in front of our fans," Anderson said. "We expected to go to Tampa tomorrow, I think everybody in that locker room did and packed their bags this afternoon, you know, just had that feeling that we were going to win tonight and give ourselves a chance."
The Canadiens killed a double minor spanning the end of the third period and start of overtime after defenseman Shea Weber was called for high-sticking Lightning forward Ondrej Palat at 18:59 of the third.
"'Webby' is our leader," Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. "You can't ask for a better teammate, so obviously the guys wanted to bear down especially for him. I mean, we understand the situation we're in, I think we would have killed it for anyone, but he's been a rock for us since he's come to our team."
Carey Price made 32 saves for the Canadiens, who are 6-1 in overtime in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"We're a resilient group," Price said. "We've faced adversity all season long and have responded well, but we've got a lot of work left to do."

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 18 saves for the Lightning, including a pad save on Nick Suzuki at 1:58 of overtime on a shorthanded rush. Tampa Bay is 0-4 in overtime.
"It's frustrating, but I don't look at it as, 'Oh well, we didn't win the game in overtime,'" Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "How did we get to overtime? We had ample chances to put this one away and we didn't, and eventually if you let a team hang around long enough, they get you, and tonight they did. So I'm not worried about the overtime thing."
Pat Maroon scored from the slot off a pass from Mathieu Joseph on the rush to tie the game 2-2 at 13:48 of the third period.
"Obviously, we would have wanted to win tonight, but that didn't happen," Lightning forward Barclay Goodrow said. "They're a very good team. They're here for a reason. Their backs are against the wall and they gave it a push. This game is over with. We're focused on Game 5 (at Tampa Bay on Wednesday)."

Alexander Romanov gave Montreal a 2-1 lead with his first NHL playoff goal on a wrist shot from the right point at 8:48 of the third. It was the rookie defenseman's first game since June 14, Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Semifinals against the Vegas Golden Knights; he had been a healthy scratch in all but two postseason games.
Anderson gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 15:39 of the first period. He one-timed a backhand feed from below the goal line by Suzuki, who took Caufield's return pass on the left side and held on to the puck to get past Lightning defenseman David Savard.
It was the first lead for Montreal in the series.
Goodrow tied it 1-1 at 17:20 of the second period. After cutting off Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry's clearing attempt just inside the blue line, Ryan McDonagh pinched and was beside Price when the goalie kicked out a rebound of Blake Coleman's shot. McDonagh backhanded a pass to the slot for Goodrow, who drove in alone to score into a wide-open net before Price could recover.
"I think any fan of any team, if you gave them the option to win the Stanley Cup or you've got to take your chance at home, I think the fanbase would've loved if we had come home with the Stanley Cup tonight," Cooper said. "That's paramount. I think it's icing on the cake if you can do it at home, but … you have ample time to celebrate with the fans when you win a Stanley Cup.
"We can't hang our hat saying, 'Because we're going home, it gives us an edge.' Our fans deserve this, but there's no guarantees. It's weird. Maybe it's set up. Maybe this is the way it was meant to be and that's going to play out, but two teams still got to play the games and the game is decided in the trenches and, hopefully, we can give our fans that gift."
NOTES: It was the 27th overtime game of the playoffs, one from tying the record set in 1993 and matched in 2020. … It is the third time the Canadiens have played at least seven overtime games in a single postseason. They went 3-4 in seven overtime games in 1951 (lost in Cup Final), and in 1993, they had 10 wins in 11 overtime games, each an NHL record, on their way to winning the Cup. … Anderson is the eighth Montreal player to score multiple overtime goals in a single postseason (Game 3 against Vegas). Maurice Richard scored a Canadiens-record three overtime goals in 1951, and Jacques Lemaire (1968), Claude Lemieux (1986), Mats Naslund (1987), and Guy Carbonneau, John LeClair and Kirk Muller (1993) each scored two.
NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen and staff writer Tom Gulitti contributed to this report