04/29/26 08:58:00
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04/29 20:57 CDT Texier breaks 3rd-period tie, Canadiens beat Lightning 3-2 in
Game 5 to take series lead
Texier breaks 3rd-period tie, Canadiens beat Lightning 3-2 in Game 5 to take
series lead
By ROB MAADDI
AP Sports Writer
TAMPA, Fla. --- (AP) --- Alexandre Texier broke a tie 1:06 into the third
period and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Wednesday
night to take a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.
Rookie Jakub Dobes stopped 38 shots to help Montreal move within a victory of
advancing for the first time since losing to the Lightning in the Stanley Cup
Finals in 2021.
Brendan Gallagher got his first goal in his first game this series and Kirby
Dach also scored for the Canadiens.
Game 6 is Friday night in Montreal, where the teams split Games 3 and 4. All
five games have been decided by one goal, including overtime in the first three.
Dominic James scored his first career playoff goal and Jake Guentzel also
connected one for the Lightning. They are one loss from being eliminated in the
first round for the fourth straight season.
Tampa Bay has lost 10 of its last 12 home games in the postseason despite 460
consecutive sellouts.
Texier took a long pass from Lane Hutson, skated into the left circle and
ripped a shot that bounced off Andrei Vasilevskiy's glove and into the net for
a 3-2 lead early in the third.
The Canadiens jumped ahead three minutes into the game when Gallagher wristed
in a rebound after Vasilevskiy kicked away Alex Newhook's backhander. Gallagher
was a healthy scratch the first four games and the 14-year veteran spent time
giving the young players advice.
Seconds after James blasted a slap shot past Dobes on a 2-on-1 breakaway, the
Canadiens regained the lead. Dach skated down the left side, went around a
defender, lost the puck, kicked it from his skate to his stick in front of the
net and put it in.
Dach deactivated his Instagram account after receiving online criticism because
his defensive lapse led to the winning goal in overtime in Game 2. He had a
goal and an assist in Montreal's 3-2 overtime win the next game.
Guentzel fired a slap shot between Dobes' legs on another 2-on-1 breakaway to
tie it at 2 late in the second. Guentzel has the best playoff goal-scoring
ratio among American-born players in NHL history with 43 goals in 79 games.
The Lightning killed off a four-minute disadvantage after Ryan McDonagh's
double minor for high-sticking in the first period. The Canadiens managed just
one shot on net during the power play.
Montreal had better scoring chances on two of Tampa Bay's power plays in the
second period. Vasilevskiy stopped Jake Evans on a short-handed breakaway on
one of them. -__
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and
https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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