TAMPA, Fla. — With 20 minutes left in Monday night’s Stanley Cup final opener, the Lightning found themselves in a familiar place, defending a one-goal lead.
The Montreal Canadiens did what they have done all postseason. When you think they’re down and out, they come back.
Then Lightning star forward Nikita Kucherov, making that injury of two games ago a distant memory, took over. He scored two goals, then assisted on captain Steven Stamkos’ dagger with 1:10 left, to give the Lightning a 5-1 Game 1 win in front of 15,911 fans.
With the win, the Lightning struck first in the best-of-seven final, and are three wins away from their second straight Stanley Cup championship.
The Lightning have learned that good things happen when you put pucks toward the net, and they’ve benefitted from the gritty kind of goals all playoffs.
The defending champion Lightning face the underdog Canadiens who are in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1993.
When Kucherov made a backhanded flip in front of the net, the puck hit off Montreal defenseman Ben Chiarot’s glove and into the back of the Canadiens net two minutes into the third.
Brayden Point set up Kucherov’s second goal. He took a faceoff win from the right circle, steered to the top of the slot and unloaded a wrister past Montreal goaltender Carey Price gloveside over his left shoulder.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves in the win.
The Lightning had control most of the first two periods as the old division rivals — the Lightning and Canadiens played together in the Atlantic Division before this year’s temporary regional realignment — renewed acquaintances with a physical game that included 115 hits.
Tampa Bay took a two-goal lead early in the second period by capitalizing on a pair of Montreal turnovers. But the Canadiens took charge midway through the middle period.
The Montreal defensemen started to create chaos in the Lightning zone. Chiarot hit a post. Shea Weber had a breakaway that Vasilevskiy stopped, then Chiarot shot a puck from the point that went off Anthony Cirelli and redirected off Ryan McDonagh’s skate and into the goal.
Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak picked a good time for his first career playoff goal, charging into the offensive zone and redirecting Ondrej Palat’s pass past Price and into the back of the net during the first period.
Point leads all skaters with 14 goals this postseason, but his defense created Cernak’s score. Point picked off a pass over the middle in the Lightning’s own zone and fed Cernak, who passed to Palat across the left side through the neutral zone and sped toward the goal for his redirect.
Lightning center Yanni Gourde, who scored the only goal in Tampa Bay’s Game 7 semifinal win over the Islanders, put the Lightning up 2-0 5:47 into the second period.
Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher was looking to make a pass from the offensive zone blue line along the far wall, but turned the puck over. The Lightning quickly headed north and as Blake Coleman headed into the Montreal zone, Gourde sped toward the front of the crease, bringing Montreal defenseman Jon Merreil with him and creating a screen in front of the net and taking Price’s view away.
When Coleman rocketed a shot toward the net, Price couldn’t track it, and Gourde was in front for a tip that went into the back of the net.
