For a first career NHL playoff goal, an overtime game-winner isn’t a bad one to hang on the mantle. J.J. Moser exorcised the Tampa Bay Lightning’s overtime demons as he snapped a wrist shot past Jakob Dobes at the 12:48 mark of overtime to give the Lightning the 3-2 win. The series heads to Montreal all tied at one game a piece.
After their 4-3 OT loss in Game One, Coach Jon Cooper made a few line-up changes. Declan stepped in for the injured Charle-Edouard D’Astous while Scott Sabourin replaced Conor Geekie. For both players it was their NHL playoff debut.
Montreal came out with the better run of play early on and had the Lightning on their heels as Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished with 25 saves, had to be sharp early on especially on a tipped shot from Nick Suzuki just over a minute into the game and Montreal built up the early shot advantage
It took the Lightning over eight minutes to get their first shot on goal, but they made it count as Brandon Hagel had a shot blocked by Kaiden Guhle, but tracked the loose puck down, turned and fired on the net from near the boards, beating Dobes to give the Lightning a rare first-period lead.
Following the Game One loss, Coach Cooper lamented the fact that the Lightning took a bunch of penalties. He pointed out that they were not of the “overly aggressive” variety, something that the Bolts had been guilty of in a couple of their regular-season games against Montreal. Well, on Tuesday, his players were back up to their thuggish ways and the wheels came off late in the first when a scrum broke out following a Nikita Kucherov interference penalty (which happened on a delayed penalty against Montreal).
Montreal emerged with a power play out of that mess and with a couple of their usual penalty killers in the box (Brandon Hagel and Jake Guentzel) Gage Goncalves was called on to help kill off the penalty. He did fine, but he was part of a unit that couldn’t get off of the ice while they were short-handed. They had one clear, but didn’t get it deep enough to change players. Montreal was able to re-enter the zone and Lane Hutson’s screened shot fooled Vasilevskiy, hitting his glove before finding the back of the net.
For the first half of the game, the Lightning struggled in the neutral and offensive zones. They were getting out of their own zone fairly well, but play was bogging down in the neutral zone and offensive zone as pucks rolled off of sticks, passes went wanting, and seemingly every shot they did get off, was blocked by a Montreal player (they finished with 24 blocked shots on the night).
Their play did start to get better as the game flipped past the halfway mark (sparked by Hagel laying out Juraj Slafkovsky with a clean right to the jaw). Despite their improved play, it was Montreal taking the lead late in the period as Josh Anderson was able to slip in front of Vasilevskiy and beat him for his second goal of the season.
It was a nice finish, but a lost board battle by Yanni Gourde was followed by another lost battle by Emil Lilleberg. Vasilevskiy also tried to poke check the puck, but it stayed on Anderson’s stick and he was able to beat the Lightning goaltender on the glove side.
Another night and another third period deficit for the Lightning. Despite the struggles to get much going, they stuck with the plan and began to get back to a more up-tempo style of play. Coach Cooper also mixed up the lines a little, putting Gourde with Dominic James and Gage Goncalves and dropping Kucherov to the Anthony Cirelli line. Nick Paul was elevated to play between Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel with Point playing on the wing.
Reuniting the Lightning’s best line paid off. Hagel stole a puck at the blueline and fired a shot that went wide. Dobes, who had 31 saves, was out of the crease and unable to get back into position as Kucherov deftly collected the puck behind the net and wrapped it around the far post on his forehand for the game-tying goal and bring the building to life with 7:27 left to go in the game.
Of course the Lightning wouldn’t go into overtime quietly. With just over two minutes to go, Sabourin drilled Anderson in the back in the neutral zone. The only problem, Anderson didn’t have the puck. Initially called a five-minute major for interference, the officials conferred as Anderson was helped off the ice by his teammates. Eventually it was reduced to a minor, but the Lightning were short-handed for the final two minutes of regulation. They killed it off and the game went to overtime for the second time in the series.
For a team that hasn’t won an overtime playoff game in years, the Lightning looked absolutely lethal for the entire bonus session (Hagel referred to it as a “clinic” after the game). They had a 17-2 edge in shot attempts, 9-0 in shots on goals, and a 9-0 edge in scoring chances. Their best chance came early when Dominic James was stopped on a rebound attempt by Dobes.
Anthony Cirelli had a good night in the face-off circle as he won 19 of 31 draws (61.29%). His biggest one came in overtime as he won it back to J.J. Moser. The defenseman walked the blue line and made a nice little move to avoid a sweep check by Kirby Dach at the blueline. With a little open space and a screen to shoot through, he snapped it past Dobes who never saw the puck go by him.
Hagel finished with the Gordie Howe hat trick and his line finished with 2 goals and a 86.95% edge in expected goals. For the second night in a row, Hagel and Cirelli kept the Canadiens’ big line off of the scoreboard at 5v5.
The Goals
Brandon Hagel [3] (Jake Guentzel, Erik Cernak) 1-0 Lightning
Lane Hutson [1] (Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield)
Josh Anderson [2] (Philip Danault, Jake Evans) 2-1 Canadiens
Nikita Kucherov [1] (Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel) 2-2
J.J. Moser [1] (Anthony Cirelli) 3-2
The Charts
#NHL Game Score Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-04-21: #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) April 21, 2026 at 10:51 PM
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