Lightning 2, Canadiens 1 (2OT)
MONTREAL -- Right winger Nikita Kucherov scored at 2:06 of the second overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 2-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of their second-round series on Friday night at the Bell Centre.
Goaltender Carey Price made 33 saves for Montreal while Ben Bishop stopped 43 shots for the Lightning.
Left winger Max Pacioretty scored in regulation for the Canadiens and center Tyler Johnson replied for Tampa Bay.
The Lightning thought they ended it early in the first overtime when Kucherov took advantage of a bouncing puck to break in on Price. But the goal was waved off when the officials deemed Kucherov pushed Price into the net.
The Canadiens skated out to a strong start, controlling the play and hitting a pair of posts early in the first but couldn't get anything by Bishop.
Pacioretty factored into two of Montreal's best chances in the second, both short-handed. First, he broke through the Lightning defense and got a shot off that was stopped. A little while later, he went in on a 2-on-1 with center Tomas Plekanec. Plekanec appeared to have the open net, but was denied on a highlight reel glove save by Bishop.
Tampa Bay earned one of its best chances of the night on the power play, just before Bishop flashed the leather. With traffic in Price's crease, the Lightning came close to tucking one behind the netminder, only to see the puck hit defenseman Jeff Petry's skate, setting up an easy clear for Montreal.
Johnson scored his league-leading seventh goal of the playoffs at 2:34 of the third period. After a penalty to Montreal expired, defenseman Matt Carle fired a shot from the top of the left circle and Johnson, battling with Canadiens blue-liner Tom Gilbert in front of Price, deflected it just inside the crossbar.
Pacioretty brought the Bell Centre to life at 14:47 with his third of the playoffs. Defenseman P.K. Subban sent the winger a pass through the neutral zone and Pacioretty broke in with winger Brendan Gallagher to his right. He skated to the top of the left circle and fired a shot that Bishop gloved but didn't close on, and the puck popped out and trickled behind him into the net.
NOTES: The Canadiens kept the same lineup from its series-clinching win against Ottawa, leaving C Manny Malhotra, C/RW Brian Flynn, D Sergei Gonchar and D Mike Weaver as healthy scratches. ... Tampa Bay scratched LW Jonathan Drouin, D Mark Barberio and D Nikita Nesterov. ... D Andrei Markov suited up for his 78th career playoff game, tying him with Bobby Rousseau and Donnie Marshall for 45th on the Canadiens' all-time list. C Tomas Plekanec appeared in his 76th career postseason game, tying Elmer Lach and Pierre Bouchard for 51st. ... Lightning C Tyler Johnson's six goals in the first round of the playoffs tied a franchise series record set by Ruslan Fedotenko in the Eastern Conference finals in 2004.