4 moments that mattered in Lightning's Game 1 loss to Canadiens in OT

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Apr 19, 2026

Published in Hockey

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TAMPA, Fla. — Momentum can shift quickly in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the Tampa Bay Lightning went into the postseason vowing they were more prepared for surviving the dramatic swings they knew they’d face against a hungry Montreal Canadiens team.

Here are four moments that mattered from Tampa Bay’s 4-3 loss in Game 1 of its opening-round series Sunday night at Benchmark International Arena:

Overtime woes at their worst

The Lightning’s overtime playoff woes — which date back through their Stanley Cup years — hit a new low after Juraj Slafkovsky scored the winning goal on the power play 1:22 into overtime.

Tampa Bay has lost 12 of its last 13 playoff games decided in overtime going back to Game 5 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Final.

The Lightning also are 1-8 at home in the playoffs dating back to the beginning of the 2023 postseason.

Slafkovsky’s third goal of the game came with 19 seconds left in Montreal’s power play on a shot from the left circle. He has seven goals against the Lightning in five meetings this season.

Power-play push

The Lightning started the game 0 for 3 on the power play, running their woeful man-advantage run to 1 for 35 over the past 12 games.

But they brought themselves back into the game with two tying goals on the power play. After Darren Raddysh scored on the man advantage to make it 1-1 with 7:45 left in the second period, Brandon Hagel tied the game 3-3 with a power-play goal at 8:58 of the third. It was his second goal of the game.

Hagel, who has seen more time on the first power-play unit in the left circle, scored from the edge of the crease, slipping past the Canadiens penalty killers and tipping in Jake Guentzel’s pass from the right circle.

Unmarked in the middle

Slafkovsky scored back-to-back goals on the power play, including his first with 23.2 seconds left in the second period to tie the game 2-2.

He then gave the Canadiens the lead 5:56 into the third when he was left unmarked between the hashes.

While the Lightning handled 50-goal scorer Cole Caufield and 101-point man Nick Suzuki, it was Slafkovsky who continues to give them trouble. He has scored seven goals against the Lightning in five games this season.

Making Habs pay for hit

The Lightning have spent a lot of time talking about how they’re at their best when they play with emotion. And when Josh Anderson — shortly after having a second goal off a redirection negated due to a high stick — knocked Lightning defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous out of the game with a running elbow to the head behind the Lightning net with 9:05 left in the second, it brought the Lightning into the fight.

They made the Habs pay on the ensuing man advantage, snapping a 1 for 35 stretch on the power play with Darren Raddysh’s one-timer from the top of the left circle. It was the first of two Lightning goals in 29 seconds, as Hagel took a loose puck that came from behind the net and beat Jakub Dobes with a backhand from in front, a score that brought the decibel level at Benchmark International Arena up.

Hagel’s goal came on a fortunate bounce after Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson tried to get the puck off the end wall behind the net and flung it off the back of the net and through the legs of Kaiden Guhle and to the blade of Hagel, who sent the puck past Dobes far post and then dropped to one knee in celebration.

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