Lightning vs. Canadiens Game 7: Takeaways as Montreal completes upset to reach Round 2

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Alex Newhook scored his first goal of the playoffs at 11:07 of the third period to snap a 1-1 tie and send the Canadiens to the second round against the Buffalo Sabres with a 2-1 victory over the Lightning. It capped a seven-game series that had one two-goal lead, had every game end with a one-goal margin, with four of them ending in overtime. It was a truly incredible series, and both teams were deserving, but only one team can win in the end. It’s been a relatively short process for this young Canadiens group to win its first playoff series just five years after the previous incarnation of the Canadiens lost Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final in this very building in 2021. Captain Nick Suzuki — who scored his first goal of the playoffs in the first period — and leading scorer Cole Caufield were young players on that veteran Canadiens team, but they are now veteran leaders of this group, with 12 players on the current roster younger than Caufield, who turned 25 on Jan. 2. That includes rookie starting goaltender Jakub Dobeš — Montreal’s best player, by far, in Game 7 with 28 saves — rookie star winger Ivan Demidov and Caufield’s linemate Juraj Slafkovský, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft who kick-started this rebuild. But Slafkovský is a perfect example of the difference between age and experience. He just turned 22 on March 30, but has been in the NHL since 2022 and is completing his fourth season with the Canadiens. “Young in age,” Brendan Gallagher, the Canadiens’ longest-tenured player who took part in that 2021 Cup final, said Sunday morning when asked if he felt his team was still young. “I think what we’ve been through and the trust — most young players when they come up in the National Hockey League don’t get the types of minutes that our guys have,” he continued. “Them being as talented and having the potential that they have, they’ve been put into these positions earlier, you gain those experiences earlier. “So young in age, but their ability to handle these things, it goes beyond how old they are. So the amount of trust and confidence and belief that we have in them is as much as anyone in the league. It’s important because of what they’ve been through.” Dominic James scored for the Lightning, who dominated long stretches of Game 7 but couldn’t figure out Dobeš. And now the Lightning have lost in the first round four consecutive seasons and will head into the offseason with some serious soul-searching and perhaps a need to make some tangible roster changes to shake themselves out of this first-round rut. Trailing after 20 minutes, the Lightning outshot the Canadiens 12-0 in the second period and finally broke through with James’ tying goal. The Canadiens did not register a shot on goal despite getting two power plays in the period, but for the vast majority of time at five-on-five, they seemed simply content to hand the puck back to the Lightning and let them attack. Now, the Lightning deserve credit for that as well. They were suffocating in the neutral zone and pressured Canadiens puck carriers all over the ice into mistakes. But considering how the middle frame went, the Canadiens were lucky to have a chance to win the game in the third. And that was thanks largely to … Many of the Canadiens’ young players had moments in this game where their youth showed. He made 11 saves in that second period and turned aside a number of quality Lightning chances in the first as well, with two of his best coming off Goncalves one-timers from the slot area. He made another off Goncalves on a one-timer from the slot at 5:10 of the third period. Dobeš entered the game with a .916 save percentage in the series and provided some of its finest moments. But that second-period performance might have been his best. All a team can ask of its goaltender is to give them a chance to win. Dobeš did that, and more. The Lightning had not got much depth scoring in the series until Gage Goncalves won Game 6 in overtime. That fourth-line mojo continued into Game 7 for Tampa Bay. The line of Goncalves with Dominic James and Oliver Bjorkstrand gave Montreal fits all night long, getting the better of their matchups and coming close to scoring in each period. And it was therefore fitting that it was James who tied the game 1-1 for Tampa, with a re-direction on a Lightning power play at 13:27 of the second period. Tampa’s second power-play unit got to start that power play because some of the Lightning’s big gun had just had a long five on five shift leading up to the Montreal penalty. Which all worked out with James scoring. James, 23, is a young player who has grown to be one of Jon Cooper’s trusted options. Whenever Tampa shortens the bench chasing a game, James remains part of the mix. That is high praise and he’s earned it. Noah Dobson suffered what appeared to be a left hand injury on April 11, with some fears he might have broken a bone. Three weeks and a day after the injury, Dobson was in uniform for Game 7. And he made an impact. He was not sheltered by coach Martin St. Louis, was able to shoot the puck and made some important defensive plays. The Canadiens might have lost a bit of physicality with Arber Xhekaj giving up his spot to Dobson, but they added a ton of poise and puck moving. One of Dobson’s biggest plays came on the shift after the James goal tied it. Lined up for an offensive zone faceoff, Dobson’s shot from the point went wide to the outside and rimmed around the boards to Brandon Hagel, creating a two-on-one break for the Lightning with Dobson defending. Just as Hagel was getting ready to pass it across, Dobson slid on the ice and poked the puck away with his stick. With just over five minutes left in regulation, Dobson blocked a Hagel shot in the Canadiens’ slot and slowly made his way to the bench, in clear discomfort. He came back to finish the game, but we’ll see what that means for his availability in the second round, which he just helped the Canadiens reach for the first time in five years. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms