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NHL NHL Playoffs Brendan Gallagher scored the opening goal for the Montreal Canadiens against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5. Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images TAMPA, Fla. — The Montreal Canadiens are returning home with a chance to win their first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they are doing so without having gotten a single goal at five-on-five from either of their top two forward lines. It is a minor miracle, but the Canadiens’ depth has put them on the verge of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and it was their spiritual leader who made his 2026 playoff debut and ignited the team. Advertisement The Canadiens got goals from Brendan Gallagher, Kirby Dach and Alexandre Texier and 38 saves from rookie goalie Jakub Dobeš in a 3-2 win in Game 5 against the Lightning on Wednesday. The Canadiens lead the series 3-2 and will have a chance to advance in Game 6 at the Bell Centre on Friday night. Gallagher sat out the first four games of the series, but he scored three minutes into the game from an area of the ice he has made his living in for over a decade, an area the Canadiens were not populating enough through the first four games. Gallagher drove the net and scored a goal in vintage Gallagher style. “I think that’s where you go, ” Gallagher said. “Especially this time of year. ” After giving up a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 loss in Game 4, coach Martin St. Louis decided it was time for Gallagher to make his grand entrance. It was perfectly timed. “I thought he could give our team a jolt, a veteran who carries himself the way he’s been carrying himself recently, ” St. Louis said. “It’s not easy for a veteran to sit like that, with all the experience he has. It’s not easy for a coach to sit a veteran like that. But at this point, I thought that was the decision I had to make. “I didn’t think he was going to do what he did tonight, but his whole journey, his whole career, I was confident he deserved this opportunity to give us a jolt. And he gave us a jolt. ” Top scorers Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovský were held off the scoresheet at five-on-five for a fifth straight game, which is something that will need to change at some point for the Canadiens. But it didn’t matter in this one, with Texier providing the game-winner. St. Louis juggled three of his forward lines entering the game, the one he left alone was Texier’s with Dach and Zack Bolduc, and they rewarded him with two goals. Advertisement “Our line is going well, ” Texier said. “We don’t really ask questions, just try to work hard and have fun and be connected in the offensive zone and be responsible defensively. If we can help the team win a game like this, it’s a bonus. ” The Lightning got goals on nearly identical second-period two-on-one breaks from rookie Dominic James and veteran Jake Guentzel, who has eight points in the series. The Lightning notably did not get any production out of Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, who have two goals in the series between them. “We just lost a Game 5, so there’s lots going on in my head right now, ” Tampa head coach Jon Cooper said. “Did I think we had our best game? We clearly did not. Is it really disappointing to come home and lose? It is. “We gave ourselves chances to score, we just didn’t. Can we do some things better? No question. But the fact we kept going down, we had to keep chasing the game. That’s not a recipe for success. ” The Lightning will need more from those veteran core pieces in Game 6, and they will need more from Andrei Vasilevskiy. On the day Vasilevskiy was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, he gave up an absolute stinker on the game-winner by Texier at 1: 06 of the third period. That shot just cannot go in. There’s no other way to put it. “Yeah, but he made a ton of good saves, ” Point said, defending his goalie. Here’s the thing, Vasilevskiy may win the Vezina Trophy this season, but his playoff numbers the last three years have been shaky, dating back to losing to Toronto in 2023 (. 875 save percentage), Florida in 2024 (. 897) and Florida again last year (. 872). He’s now given up 14 goals in five games this series. He was great in Game 3, stopping three breakaways, but otherwise has not dominated the goalie matchup with Dobeš. The goalie matchup between a two-time Stanley Cup champion and a rookie was a major storyline ahead of this series. So far, the way it’s played out has to be somewhat alarming for Tampa Bay. Advertisement There was always a sense that St. Louis was saving Gallagher for the perfect moment of the series, that he was getting him wound up tighter and tighter with every game he sat out, and Game 5 was the moment to unleash him. On Gallagher’s first shift of the series, he helped create a turnover in the neutral zone by grazing a puck away from Corey Perry, allowing Alex Newhook to grab the puck and enter the Lightning zone with speed. Newhook faked going short side on Vasilevskiy before cutting back across the crease, creating confusion and pulling Vasilevskiy out of position. That’s when Gallagher arrived on the scene, putting a loose puck into a wide-open net to open the scoring at 3: 00 of the first period. “It’s the same now as it was my first year in the league, you just take nothing for granted, ” Gallagher said. “I know how good this group is, I know how deep they are, so opportunities are going to be limited. That doesn’t mean they’re not going to come, you’ve just got to be ready when they do. ” Gallagher only played 6: 48 in the game, but he put a stamp on this game regardless. The Canadiens warmed up looking very much like they did in Game 4, with the obvious exception of Gallagher being in the lineup. But once the game began, they looked completely different. St. Louis changed three of his four forward lines, most notably breaking up the top unit of Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovský, which had been shut out at five-on-five through the first four games of the series. Slafkovský moved to a line with Jake Evans and Ivan Demidov, who was Slafkovský’s linemate for the majority of the time from mid-November to early March. He was replaced on the top line by Josh Anderson, who had been a force on the fourth line this series and got more ice time, 15: 30, thanks to the promotion. Advertisement Picking Anderson to play with Suzuki and Caufield was a bold decision by St. Louis. Over the last three seasons, Suzuki played just over 255 minutes at five-on-five with Anderson and the Canadiens’ underlying numbers in those minutes were worse — by a mile — than they were with any other forward who had played at least 100 minutes with him, according to Natural Stat Trick. Suzuki ultimately spent a significant amount of time centering two lines, taking several shifts between Demidov and Slafkovský as well. The results for the Canadiens’ top six still weren’t there. And finally, Anderson and Evans were replaced on Phillip Danault’s line by Gallagher and Alex Newhook, who created the chaos that allowed Gallagher to open the scoring by driving the puck hard to the net. Guenztel now has eight points (two goals, six assists) in the series after scoring the then-game-tying goal late in the second period. He beat Dobeš with a shot that found its way under the goalie’s left arm. Guentzel also scored late in the second period Sunday night in Montreal in Game 4, a goal that really got Tampa going in their comeback win. This is why Tampa traded for Guentzel two years ago, because of the big-game production he had shown during his years in Pittsburgh. His goal Wednesday night was his 43rd career playoff goal in 79 games. He’s bounced around a few forward lines in this series, with the Lightning looking to get other guys going. But part of that is also because head coach Jon Cooper knows he never has to worry about how that will impact Guentzel’s ability to produce. Kucherov was better in Game 4 with his two-assist effort, but the Lightning winger regressed Wednesday night in Game 5. It’s really quite bizarre what’s going on with him for most of this series. But he just isn’t taking over games like we’re used to seeing during the regular season. There’s a decent chance he wins the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP this season. And he’s already been named a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award for most outstanding player, as voted on by his peers. Advertisement So where is that version of Kucherov, at least consistently, in this series? He had a big game-tying goal in Game 2 and set up Brandon Hagel’s game-winner in Game 4. But otherwise, not vintage Kucherov. To make matters worse, he bobbled a puck at the Montreal blue line on a Tampa power play in the second period and allowed Evans to break through alone on Vasilevskiy, only for the Bolts netminder to bail out Kucherov with a save. Kucherov’s body language shows his frustration, too. It’s not hard to tell when he’s not feeling great about what’s going on. Kucherov started on the top line again with Hagel and Point for the second game in a row, but that unit didn’t generate as much on this night. Cooper made an adjustment mid-game, with Kucherov and Hagel joining Anthony Cirelli on a new top line, while Point joined Yanni Gourde and Guentzel on another line. The Tampa head coach keeps trying to find ways to get Kucherov going. And for that matter, Point, too. Tampa’s No. 1 center has struggled all series, with just one power-play goal. He suffered a knee injury earlier this season, which cost him the Olympics and it just doesn’t look like he’s recovered fully. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle