- Lane Hutson scored 2:09 into overtime to give Montreal a 3-2 win in Game 3
- The slap shot was Hutson’s first of the season, off a feed from Alexandre Texier
- Read below for the goal video, Kirby Dach’s bounce-back night, and what’s next
Lane Hutson said it was probably his first slap shot of the season. He picked a pretty good moment to dust it off.
Montreal’s 21-year-old defenseman ripped one through traffic at 2:09 of overtime Friday night, beating Andrei Vasilevskiy and giving the Canadiens a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 at Bell Centre. Habs now lead the series 2-1 after the third straight overtime game between these two teams.
“That honestly might have been my first slap shot all year,” Hutson said, per NHL.com. “I saw some space, lots of bodies, and just tried to shoot it as hard as I could, and luckily it went in.”
Alexandre Texier worked a puck out of the right corner before feeding Hutson above the face-off circle. Head coach Martin St. Louis was happy to leave his star defenseman out there with the game on the line.
“He plays some important minutes for us and I feel comfortable with him on the ice in any matchup,” St. Louis said. “I never try to protect him because he competes so hard. We love when he has the puck on his stick, he’s elite. We’re lucky to have him.”
Here is the goal:
Kirby Dach also had a goal and an assist after taking heat for the icing-and-coverage breakdown that led to J.J. Moser’s Game 2 winner. St. Louis moved Dach back to center on a new line with Texier and Zachary Bolduc. That trio combined for six points.
When Dach popped up on the Bell Centre jumbotron during warmups, the crowd let him have it in the best way.
“I didn’t really expect it, so it was nice,” Dach said. “The fans have been unbelievable for us all year, and for me, they’ve stuck by my side.”
Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel scored for Tampa Bay. Vasilevskiy stopped 26. Jakub Dobes made 15 saves at the other end. Hagel has now scored in all three games of the series.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper was not impressed with how his group played.
“I thought out of the three games this was our worst game, you know, for us, from start to finish,” Cooper said. “It was fortunate for us that we took this to overtime.”
Montreal took Game 1 in Tampa on Juraj Slafkovsky’s overtime hat trick before dropping Game 2. Game 4 goes Sunday at the Bell Centre, with puck drop at 7 p.m. ET on CBC and ESPN.
