After dominating the first forty minutes of the game, the Habs found themselves down 2-1. Tampa Bay shut things down in the third and the Habs simply didn’t have the offensive firepower to overcome the Lightning’s solid defensive play who got the 3-1 win and the 2-0 series lead in large part thanks to Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Habs leaned on a defensive structure that has been frustrating their opponents all postseason to frustrate the Golden Knights on Tuesday night which helped them secure a 4-1 victory to take a 3-2 series lead.
The Habs once again came out strong, took a lead, and were ultimately able to hang on for the 3-2 win on Wednesday night as they split the road game giving them home-ice advantage moving forward.
The Habs came out strong on Monday but couldn’t beat a floundering Marc-Andre Fleury. Ten minutes later, the Knights woke up and the Habs didn’t have an answer other than Carey Price’s continued heroics but it wasn’t enough as the Golden Knights opened the series with a 4-1 win.
The Habs were the better team for most of Monday’s Game 4 which was surprising given the fact that the Jets had their season on the line. Montreal let up enough in the second for Winnipeg to get back in the game, but the Suzuki-Caufield overtime magic was just too irresistible as they found an open Toffoli to end the series with a 3-2 victory, sending the Habs to a final-four appearance.
The Habs got another early lead and didn’t look back. Joel Armia had a pair of shorthanded tallies as special teams played a big role on Sunday night as Montreal skated away with a 5-1 victory, extending their series lead on Winnipeg to 3-0.
It was a full team, complete-game effort that gave the Habs a 5-3 win in Game 1 against Winnipeg. That needs to remain the focus after a disgusting end to the game that should mean the end of Mark Scheifele for most of the series if not the rest of it.
Carey Price offered another all-world performance on Monday night in a 3-1 victory to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a stunning upset over the heavily favoured Toronto Maple Leafs as they overcame a 3-1 series deficit to move on to face Winnipeg in the second round.
The Habs came out strong and played physical enough to keep the Leafs from being too comfortable. Carey Price saved the team on numerous chances and the team finally supported him with some goals with Nick Suzuki potting the overtime winner in a 4-3 victory.
Same recipe, same disaster. The Habs couldn’t score with only one line generating offence because of an obsession with shutting down Matthews instead of trying to win. Carey Price stood on his head again but can’t do it by himself. The end result was the Habs losing 4-0 on Tuesday night and they now trail 3-1 in the series.