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 With the season on the line, Montreal burst to a 5-0 lead midway
through the second to beat the Lightning for the first time in nine
meetings this season and send the series back to Montreal on
Saturday.
The Canadiens' goals came from six different players, while
goaltender Carey Price stopped 22 of 24 shots.
Andrei Markov opened the scoring early before Max Pacioretty scored
short-handed to give the visitors a 2-0 lead after the first period.
David Desharnais, Jeff Petry and Brendan Gallagher put the Habs out
of reach midway through the second.
Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov pulled one back later in the second to
make it 5-1 and Ondrej Palat reduced the deficit to three goals with
a power-play strike early in the third.
However, Brandon Prust iced the win by scoring Montreal's sixth goal
of the game at 4:52 of the third.
The six goals were the most allowed by the Lightning in a playoff
game since 2006.
After going 3-0 down the Lightning pulled goaltender Ben Bishop and
gave rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy his NHL playoff debut.
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The switch did not have the desired effect as Montreal scored twice
in his first five minutes -- 15 seconds apart -- to take a 5-0 lead.
While Montreal will get a boost from the win, they still have a
mountain to climb if they are to advance. Only four teams have
survived 3-0 series deficits in 178 opportunities.
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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