TAMPA, Fla. — Juraj Slafkovsky scored his third power-play goal 1:22 into overtime and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Game 1 of their first-round series on Sunday night.
Slafkovsky, 22, the No. 1 overall pick back in 2022 who made his playoff debut last season, fired a slap shot from the left circle that raced past Andrei Vasilevskiy to the far side for the hat trick. According to ESPN Research, Slafkovsky is the youngest player in NHL history with a hat trick in a postseason opener, passing Wayne Gretzky, who was also 22, back in 1983.
“I kind of saw some open space there,” Slafkovsky said of the winner. “I decided to shoot it, and thankfully, it went in. So, we’re all happy. But, yeah, we still have to focus. We have a game in two days.”
Game 2 is Tuesday night at Benchmark International Arena, where Tampa Bay has lost eight of its last nine home games in the postseason.
Montreal coach Martin St. Louis, a Lightning icon and Hockey Hall of Fame forward, called a timeout during the overtime power-play just before Slafkovsky’s winner.
“I think he was just trying to give us a little break,” Montreal captain Nick Suzuki said. “Marty just wanted to talk it over, and see what we wanted to do. We didn’t want to change anything, we had already been out there, but we just wanted to try to end the game.”
Josh Anderson also had a goal for Montreal and rookie goalie Jakub Dobes made 20 saves in the NHL’s first overtime game of this postseason.
Brandon Hagel scored two goals and Darren Raddysh also scored for Tampa Bay, which came into the round heavily favored to win the series. The Lightning have been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round three straight seasons after falling two wins shy of a Stanley Cup three-peat in 2022.
The Canadiens are seeking their first Stanley Cup since winning their NHL record 24th in 1993. They haven’t won a playoff series since the Lightning beat them in the Cup Final in 2021.
A year later, they drafted Slafkovsky, who became the first player in NHL history, according to ESPN Research, with three power-play goals, including one being an overtime winner, in any postseason game.
“It’s been unbelievable, honestly,” Anderson said of Slafkovsky’s development. “This year, he obviously took a huge stride. He’s a power forward, a big guy, and it’s just hard to stop him.”
Hagel’s power-play goal — a tip-in off a precise pass by Jake Guentzel 8:58 into the third — tied it at 3-3 a few minutes after Slafkovsky put Montreal ahead.
Slafkovsky’s shot from the high slot slid under Vasilevskiy’s left pad for a short-lived lead. He one-timed a perfect seam pass from Ivan Demidov into the net from the right circle to make it 2-2 in the final minute of the second.
Along the way, he became the 22nd different Canadiens player to record a hat trick in a Stanley Cup Playoff game, according to ESPN Research.
Raddysh tied it at 1 with a powerful slap shot in the second. The Lightning quickly went ahead 2-1 just 29 seconds later when Hagel picked up a loose puck from the side of the net and backhanded a shot past Dobes.
Montreal’s fourth line gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead in the first when Anderson flipped a top-shelf shot into an open net.
Anderson had another goal overturned by video review midway through the second period. He deflected Mike Matheson’s slap shot past Vasilevskiy but it was waved off because his stick was above the crossbar.
In the loss, Tampa Bay saw the return of center Dominic James, who was activated from long-term injured reserve earlier in the day. James, 23, missed the final 24 games of the regular season with a lower body injury, undergoing surgery back in March. He skated with the fourth line, playing nine shifts that covered 7:18 time on the ice.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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