Lightning top Canadiens 1-0 in OT, push series to seventh game: Takeaways
Eric Bolte-Imagn Images The Tampa Bay Lightning forced their Eastern Conference First Round series to a seventh game with a 1-0 overtime victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 6 at Bell Centre on Friday night. The Atlantic Division rivals were scoreless through more than 69 minutes of action before Gage Goncalves banged a loose puck past Jakub Dobes for the game’s lone goal. Brandon Hagel spun past a checker at the right point and fed Dominic James in the lower right circle.
James flung the puck at the net, where Goncalves got a poke at it. Dobes got a piece of the shot, but Goncalves reached the loose puck and muscled it into the net at 9:03 for the win. GAGE GONCALVES PUSHES THIS SERIES TO A #GAME7 !!!
⚡⚡⚡ HE COMES THROUGH WITH A HUGE GOAL IN @ENERGIZER OVERTIME! #StanleyCup pic. twitter.
com/K4MTTlbmYy — NHL (@NHL) May 2, 2026 The goal came after each goaltender made game-saving stops in OT. Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy got across to stop Game 1 hero Juraj Slafkovsky’s one-timer from the right circle seconds after Lightning star Nikita Kucherov was called for tripping 5:30 into overtime. The Lightning killed the remainder of the penalty, and Kucherov nearly won it when he came out of the box, grabbed the puck in the Montreal zone and forced Dobes to make a brilliant stop to keep the game scoreless.
Vasilevskiy, who allowed a soft goal that proved to be the winner in Montreal’s 3-2 victory in Game 5, rebounded with a flawless, 30-save effort. Dobes finished with 32 saves as the teams played their fourth overtime game and sixth one-goal game in a series that’s becoming a classic. The series returns to Benchmark International Arena in Tampa for Game 7 on Sunday.
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