TAMPA – The Lightning had their full game on display Monday night with a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. 
The offense took some time to warm with a goal in each of the first periods before potting three unanswered goals in the third period.
As for the defense, the Canadiens were held off the board until late in the middle frame.
“We had a few turnovers. Me personally, I had two,” Montreal’s Nick Suzuki said Tuesday. “Just have to keep those down, be smart with the puck. I think once we get in the offensive zone, we can outwork them there. It’s just going to be key. It looks like they want to play against us the whole time, so we have to do a better job.”
Game 2 is set for this evening, in Tampa, before heading off to Montreal for Games 3 and 4.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 18 saves to get the win.
Nikita Kucherov struck twice for Tampa in the third period outburst, and Steve Stamkos added a late power play goal for the Lightning.
“You talk about the transformation of our team in the last couple years,” Tampa head coach Jon Cooper said Tuesday. “I think a big part of that has been the transformation of Nikita Kucherov.”
Ben Chiarot scored the Habs only goal of the game after the Bolts had taken a 2-0 lead in the second period.
“I don’t think it was their best night, for sure, but as a team I think we were all off of our game and we’ll be back on our best game tomorrow,” Montreal coach Luke Richardson said. “There’s not much you can do on the road. You can try and flip things around a little bit, but obviously the home team has last match. Whoever’s out there, we talked about it, has to be on your toes. Obviously, when the Point line especially is out there, they’re very dangerous.”
Carey Price made 22 saves in the loss.
“We have to trust our own game,” Suzuki said. “There’s moments in the game where as long as we can use our skill and make the plays (they can), but you have to realize if you have nothing right in front of you, just to make a simple play and not to try to make something out of nothing. I think we got caught a couple times doing that. But when we were making plays, using each other, we had some good shifts in the offensive zone. Just need more of that.”
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