MONTREAL (AP) 鈥� Gage Goncalves scored off his own rebound at 9:03 of overtime and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 on Friday night to force a Game 7 in the first-round series.
Goncalves scored soon after the Lightning killed scoring star Nikita Kucherov’s penalty for tripping Alexandre Carrier.
鈥淚t was thrilling. It was epic,鈥� Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. 鈥淚t was goaltenders making extraordinary saves, players doing things that were of grace and skill and magic. And there was intensity. There were hits. It was everything. And there wasn鈥檛 a goal scored, yet everybody in the building was on the edge of their seats.鈥�
Game 7 is Sunday night in Tampa. The Lightning are trying to avoid a fourth consecutive first-round exit, while the Canadiens are chasing their first series victory in five years.
The series winner will face Buffalo. The Sabres wrapped up their series with Boston in six games Friday night with a 4-1 road victory
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves for Tampa Bay for his eighth career playoff shutout.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have much emotions,鈥� Vasilevskiy said. 鈥淚 mean for the fans it was probably a roller-coaster, but for me it was pretty even.鈥�
Jakub Dobes stopped 32 shots for Montreal. The first three games of the series also went to overtime.
The game was the second in three days to go to overtime scoreless, with Philadelphia beating Pittsburgh 1-0 on Wednesday night to end that series in six games. Before the season, the last 0-0 playoff game in regulation was in 2021.
鈥淚t was an amazing game of hockey. I think the two teams played their best game of the series,鈥� Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. 鈥淭his is probably one of the best games I鈥檝e seen this young group play. You鈥檝e just got to embrace the situation.鈥�
Dobes and the Canadiens survived a flurry of shots on a late power play. The Lightning got the man advantage after Ivan Demidov broke in on Vasilevskiy, failed to score and was called for goalie interference.
Late in the second 鈥� with the Lightning鈥檚 Charle-Edouard D鈥橝stous off for slashing Phillip Danault 鈥� Vasilevskiy stopped Demidov twice from close range.
鈥淚 think we found out we鈥檝e got the best goalie in the world. I think we already knew that, but he was incredible,鈥� Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just one thing off your mind. You don鈥檛 have to worry about that big guy back there.:
Tampa Bay had a power-play chance early in the third after Kaiden Guhle was called for slashing Jake Guentzel. On the Lightning鈥檚 best chance, Nikita Kucherov fired a shot off the post.
Montreal had only one shot on goal on a power play to start the second period with Guentzel off for high-sticking Guhle with 11 seconds left in the first.
Danault kept it scoreless a few minutes later when he swept the puck away before it could cross the goal line. Montreal then killed Alexandre Texier鈥檚 high-sticking penalty.
___
AP NHL:
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
