Canadiens Notes: Dach Responds in Game 3

For the third straight meeting, the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning needed overtime to determine a winner. Alexandre Texier opened the scoring early into the game, before the Lightning answered with a goal under three minutes later, and another goal early in the second period. Kirby Dach tied the game before the second intermission. After a scoreless third period, Lane Hutson made the Bell Center erupt with a blast from the blue line that found its way into the net.

The Canadiens lead the series 2-1 with game 4 coming on Sunday at 7:00 pm. Eastern.

Habs Notes

Here are notes from game 3.

Kirby Dach had an emotional 72 hours. After making two costly mistakes that led to Tampa Bay’s winning goal in game 2, Dach closed his Instagram account after receiving backlash from fans. Martin St. Louis publicly supported his forward, and praised his overall performance over the last two week period. Dach responded with a two-point and plus-3 performance on Friday. The 20,962 fans in the arena chanted his name throughout the night, including during the announcement of the second star.
St. Louis kept his top line intact, but shifted things around on the remaining three. The newly formed trio of Dach, Zachary Bolduc, and Alexandre Texier delivered the best results. They were on the ice for all three of Montreal’s goals.
The line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky continued to struggle. They haven’t produced a five‑on‑five point this series. All five Montreal goals scored at even strength have come from support players. Josh Anderson twice, Alexandre Texier, Kirby Dach, and Lane Hutson. While getting secondary scoring is a positive, they still need contributions from their offensive leaders.
St. Louis put Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen back on the same line. The duo started playing together from rookie camp and stuck together until game 80 of the regular season. Since that time, Kapanen’s role has decreased. He’s off the penalty kill and ended Friday with the lowest ice time of any forward.
In a rare situation, Jakub Dobes received a minor penalty at two different times during the game. The first one proved costly when the Lightning tied it on the power play. The second penalty came when Tampa Bay scored a soft goal on Dobes. On the play, Nikita Kucherov skated toward the crease and Dobes shoved him aside.