P.A. Parenteau’s late goal lifts Habs over Lightning, forces Game 6 (Video)
P.A. Parenteau’s goal with 4:07 left in the third period broke a 1-1 tie and helped give the Montreal Canadiens a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night, forcing a Game 6.
Playing desperate hockey like they did in Game 4, Montreal peppered Lightning netminder Ben Bishop with 20 shots through two periods, but only managing to beat him once, a Devante Smith-Pelly wrister 9:01 into the game.
The horshoe that Bishop was sitting on — so said P.K. Subban — was evident in the second period when the Canadiens hit posts on three occasions. That allowed the Lightning the chance to get back into the game.
Tampa had two glorious opportunities to even the score. First, Brendan Morrow shot the puck right into Carey Price’s pad:
The second came in the third period when Valtteri Filppula had plenty of net space to find, but Price got a piece of his glove on the shot:
The Lightning would eventually get their tying goal midway through the third period.
Steven Stamkos won an offensive zone face-off and the puck found its way to Anton Stralman at the point. The Tampa defenseman made a great deke around Brandon Prust and fired a shot that went off Filppula in front as Stamkos cleaned up:
That goal could have been a backbreaker for the Canadiens, but they responded positively to Tampa’s equalizer. Six minutes later, Subban pulled a similar move to Stralman at the blue line in the Lightning zone and found Parenteau in the slot for the winner:
Tampa still leads the series 3-2 with Game 6 Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.
“We knew played a solid game overall,” Parenteau told NBCSN afterward. “We didn’t let [the tying goal] affect us and we kept playing hard all night. It’s a huge win. I think we have a series now.”
Tampa head coach Jon Cooper spoke about wanting his team to “go for the jugular” before Game 3, knowing they didn’t want to give Montreal any life in this series.
Now after two straight wins, the Canadiens have a very lively pulse.
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
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