The Tampa Bay Lightning have made a perfect start to their defence of the NHL Stanley Cup by taking the first three games in this year’s Final.
Jon Cooper’s team ran out convincing 5-1 winners in Game 1 before a more competitive battle on Wednesday night that saw the defending champions win 3-1.
Game 3 in Montreal was little better for the Habs who dropped a 6-3 decision on home ice.
Positive Nyheter om Ishockey as they would say in Sweden, for the Canadian side is that coach Dominique Ducharme will be back for Game 3 on Friday after missing the first two meetings after being in quarantine.
Montreal have easily been the biggest surprise story of the 2021 season. Most pundits and fans alike wrote off all Canadian franchises to get a single playoff series wins heading into the campaign. After that the Toronto Maple Leafs ran away with the North Division in the regular season.
However, the Canadiens upset the Maple Leafs 4-3 in the First Round, beat Winnipeg 4-0 next and then eliminated pre-season favourites the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in the semi-finals.
To lift the championship trophy from this score would be one of the biggest upsets in NHL history.
Montreal certainly showed some fight in Game 2. Brendan Gallagher’s brand of smash-mouth hockey was on full display Wednesday following the scars he received during a goal mouth tussle in the opener.
The 11-year veteran showed his toughness early in the first quarter. After losing the puck and his stick whilst falling to the ice, Gallagher managed to bat the puck away from danger with his glove and used his body to block a point-blank slapshot that followed.
Unfortunately for the Canadiens his efforts failed to get them the first win of the series. Now they head back to host Tampa Bay in Game 3 where they are desperate for a win. Not since the 1998 Detroit Red Wings has a team won the Stanley Cup finals 4-0.
Tampa Bay are looking to win the three Stanley Cup in their history and become the first franchise to win back-to-back titles since the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017.
Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point were the stars of Game 1 with two goals, one assist and three assists respectively as the Lightning ran out 5-1 winners, which included a 3-0 scoreline in the third period. Andrei Vasilevskiy faced just 19 shots over the 60 minutes.
Neither star of Game 1 made a huge impact on Wednesday night as neither Kucherov nor Point were among the point scorers, whilst goaltender Vasilevskiy was forced into a staggering 42 saves in the 3-1 victory. Tampa Bay only had a one-goal lead heading into the final five minutes of the tie.
Can the Montreal Canadiens hang with the Tampa Bay Lightning and extend the series to six or even seven games? There were certainly good signs on Wednesday night but whether they can play at that level again remains to be seen.
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