The Montreal Canadiens turned a Game 7 in Tampa into pure chaos, stealing a 2-1 win over the Lightning despite putting just nine shots on net all night. Alex Newhook's midair swat in the third period stood up as the winner, and Jakub Dobeš handled everything Tampa could throw at him to lock down the upset. Montreal moves on to the second round, while a stunned Lightning crowd was left wondering how that one got away.
Nick Suzuki started the scoring late in the first with a deft tip, and Newhook delivered the dagger at 11:07 of the third when he batted in a rebound that had ricocheted off Andrei Vasilevskiy. Dobeš finished with 28 saves as Montreal clung to the 2-1 edge and booked a Round 2 date with the Buffalo Sabres, with Game 1 set for Wednesday in Buffalo. Every game in the series was decided by a single goal and four went to overtime, a seven-game coin flip from start to finish, according to NHL.com.
A Historic Stat Line
Those nine shots were not just ugly, they were historic. Montreal set an NHL record for the fewest shots on goal in a playoff win, a sharp reminder that hockey is not always kind to the analytics column. The Canadiens went more than 26 minutes without a shot and did not register a single shot in the second period, a first in the franchise's long playoff history. Opportunistic finishing and a wall of shot-blockers flipped the usual script in a series already defined by razor-thin margins and overtime marathons, as reported by Sportsnet.
Chaos at the Buzzer
The final moments were downright frantic. With roughly six seconds left, Mike Matheson sailed the puck over the glass for a delay-of-game penalty, gifting Tampa a 6-on-4 situation that had the arena on its feet. The Lightning pressed, but the last look of the series, a Nikita Kucherov blast from distance, was blocked as the clock hit zero. That sequence capped a night in which Tampa outshot Montreal 12-0 in the second period, but a combination of desperate blocks and Dobeš's calm in the crease kept the Canadiens in front. Per Tampa Free Press.
What This Means
For the Lightning, the loss extends a worrying pattern: another strong regular season followed by a first-round exit, their fourth in a row. For Montreal, this was more than just a weird win, it was a loud signal that the rebuild is starting to bite. A young core, sharp special teams and timely goaltending now carry the Canadiens into Round 2 with momentum that belies their shot total. For the full boxscore and play-by-play, see CBS Sports.
