Tampa Bay Lightning spoil Montreal Canadiens home opener
Carey Price would have hoped for a better fate after making 44 saves, but as it stands the Tampa Bay Lightning snatched a win from the jaws of defeat on Wednesday night, coming from behind to win 4-3 in
overtime, and spoiling the Montreal Canadiens' home opener.
How it went down
The Canadiens got out to a dream start when the puck came out of the corner in the Lightning zone to a wide open Maxim Lapierre. He had all day to set up his shot and fired a hard wrister past Lightning
goalie Mike Smith.
The Canadiens went into the first intermission up by two goals when Tomas Plekanec was fed a beautiful pass from Mike Cammalleri, giving him a wide open net to shoot at.
Tampa got a lifeline early in the second period when Brett Clark scored on the power play with a point shot that looped over Canadiens goalie Carey Price.
It was penalties that ended up undoing the Canadiens effort as, after trading goals midway through the third period, rookie defenceman P.K. Subban took a questionable slashing call with only 2:12 left
to play. Steven Stamkos scored on the ensuing powerplay to send the game into overtime.
With only 50 seconds remaining in OT, Carey Price failed to cover up a scramble in front of his net and Ryan Malone fired home the rebound to give the Lightning their second win in a row to start the season.
What they're saying
Although Subban was furious at the late call that opened the door for the Lightning, Canadiens head coach Jaques Martin wasn't about to blame the referees, instead placing the responsibility on his young
defenceman.
"With two minutes left, when you're making a check your stick has to be on the ice," Martin said of Subban. "These are things he will learn with experience."
With the exception of some of their core players, the Lightning underwent a major overhaul during the off-season and first-year head coach Guy Boucher explained how the victory on Wednesday would be instrumental
in building strong team chemistry.
"To come back like this will help with the process of bringing this team together, because half the team is new and our coaching staff is new," he said. "It's tough to put things in place quickly, so a
moment like this will help."
What it all means
The Tampa Lightning remain undefeated after two games but have a tough test ahead of them as they play their second game in as many nights when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers, in Philly, on Thursday
night.
Despite arguably Price's best performance to date, the Canadiens have fallen to 1-1-1. They go up against the Buffalo Sabres, losers of three straight, in Buffalo on Friday night.
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