Jon Cooper: Lightning Game 1 Loss to Canadiens is ‘On Us’

Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images The Montreal Canadiens got five chances with the power play in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday. Juraj Slafkovsky scored on three of them. Slafkovsky’s natural hat trick culminated with his power-play goal 82 seconds into overtime to give the Canadiens a 4-3 win and a 1-0 series lead against the Lightning.

Tampa Bay, which has lost its past three Game 1s after the Florida Panthers won the previous two, tied the score midway through the third. But a high-sticking call on Jake Guentzel gave Montreal’s momentum-changing power play another chance 21 seconds before the end of regulation. Slafkovsky’s first power-play goal came in the second and tied the score at 2 after Tampa Bay scored twice in 29 seconds.

His second gave Montreal a 3-2 lead at 5:56 of the third. His third, which beat Andrei Vasilevskiy from the left circle, won the thing. “It was pretty nice, nice feeling,” Slafkovsky said.

“But we don’t want to go to overtime. Hopefully, we can close out games before that. ’’ After the game, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said his team just cannot give Montreal that many key chances.