4 moments that mattered in Lightning's Game 4 win over Canadiens

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Apr 26, 2026

Published in Hockey

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MONTREAL — The Tampa Bay Lightning desperately needed to win Game 4 Sunday at Bell Centre, as dropping both games in Montreal would put their season on the brink, requiring them to win three straight.

When Cole Caufield’s power-play goal with 6:31 left in the second period put the Canadiens ahead 2-0, it was the first multiple-goal lead for either team. That’s how tightly contested the series has been.

But a Tampa Bay team that has feared no deficit rallied, and two Brandon Hagel goals in the third period — giving him six for the postseason — propelled the Lightning to a 3-2 comeback win.

The series returns to Tampa for Game 5 on Wednesday tied at two games apiece.

Here are four moments that mattered:

Playing the villian

The Lightning love silencing the loudest of road crowds, and they got to do that when Nikita Kucherov drew a cross-checking penalty on Jake Evans with 8:27 to play. As Kucherov, who has been booed incessantly every time he touches the puck, slowly got up and skated to the bench, the crowd willed the Canadiens to a penalty kill. They got it, but Kucherov later had his say, finding Hagel in front for the go-ahead goal with 4:53 left.

A hit heard around Montreal

Game 4 wasn’t the physical game that Game 2 was, but with the Lightning trailing by two goals with 2:12 remaining in the second period, Max Crozier laid a clean open-ice hit on Juraj Slafkovsky at center ice right on the Canadiens logo. There was no whistle on the play, which drew the ire of the crowd, and the hit seemed to spark the Lightning. Crozier, who hadn’t played in the first three games of the series, has developed some snarl to his game, and he showed it at one of the most desperate times for the Lightning.

A hole to climb out of

The Lightning continued to hurt themselves with offensive-zone penalties, and in the final moments of a Tampa Bay power play Jake Guentzel took a slashing penalty with 7:36 left in the second period. Guentzel skated in front of the net, fired a shot and then took a whack at Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes’ pad while trying to find the puck. The Lightning penalty kill already had killed off a 3-minute, 48-second power play that included 12 seconds at 3-on-5. But with Guentzel sitting in the box, Cole Caufield slipped uncovered in front of the net and scored to put Montreal up 2-0 with 6:31 left in the period.

A critical final minute in second

After another offensive-zone penalty call, a slash on Hagel, negated a Lightning power play, Guentzel ran a give-and-go with J.J. Moser. Moser found Guentzel skating to the net for a tip-in with 54 seconds left in the second, a score the Lightning desperately needed to get back into the game. While the goal was huge for the Lightning, Dobes made a diving save to stop Crozier’s shot on net with five seconds left in the period that came so close to tying the game.

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