FINAL/OT | Stanley Cup Final, Game 4 | Monday July 2, 2021 

Lightning lead series 3-1

Canadiens Lineup

Josh Anderson – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield

 Tyler Toffoli – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Paul Byron – Jake Evans – Artturi Lehkonen

Joel Armia – Eric Staal – Corey Perry

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Alexander Romanov – Brett Kulak

Carey Price – Jake Allen

Tomas Tatar, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Erik Gustafsson, Jon Merrill

Alex Belzile, Laurent Dauphin, Lukas Vejdemo, Jesse Ylonen, Cale Fleury, Otto Leskinen, Xavier Ouellet, Cayden Primeau, Michael McNiven

Jonathan Drouin (undisclosed)

Game Report

With their season on the line, in the most important game of the year, the Canadiens came out flat. It was a dangerous start for Montreal who were a step behind Tampa Bay from the drop of the puck. The Habs were on their heels showing no signs of urgency as it took more than eight minutes to register their first shot on goal after eight unanswered shots by Tampa.

It was Carey Price who was superb in the first period fending off the Lightning on his own until his team found their footing. Shots were 11-1 for Tampa before Josh Anderson opened the scoring off a great pass by Nick Suzuki. It was the first time the Canadiens have had a lead in the Final series. 

Scoring first

Taking a 1-0 lead to the first intermission played right into the Canadiens game plan. After their show start, Montreal became more comfortable as the game went along. Shea Weber and Ben Chiarot led the team in punishing the Lightning at every opportunity. 

It was a rough outing for Joel Edmundson and Jeff Petry. Edmundson took a bad penalty, had a team worst CF% REL of -32.14 playing more than 28 minutes while the other three Clydesdales found themselves in penalty trouble. Petry had several giveaways and was victimized on Tampa’s tying goal in the second period.

Changes on D

The big pre-game news was the new third-pairing on defence. Fan favorite Alexander Romanov didn’t show ill effects from having only played two previous games in the playoffs. Romanov was physical, made crisp passes and scored the Canadiens go ahead goal (facilitated by a timely Artturi Lehkonen screen) in the third period, his first of the playoffs.

Brett Kulak played a quiet, mostly steady game in a sheltered role even leading the break on the first goal. But with Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry trapped in the penalty box for more than six minutes waiting for a stoppage, Kulak was paired with Romanov. Kulak was overly aggressive placing himself out of position and got knocked down by Pat Maroon. Kulak should have been able to track down the slower Maroon or perhaps dive to prevent the tying goal. 

The Canadiens penalty-kill was severely tested but held fast as the Lightning had five power-play opportunities. Montreal’s penalty-killers need to do more to disrupt Tampa’s zone entries as once they get set up, they can be lethal. Carey Price was by far Montreal’s best penalty-killer.

Led by Price and Anderson

Price’s magic was leaned on when Shea Weber was assessed a double minor with one minute left in the third period. Even with a full three minutes on a clean sheet as overtime began, Price could not be beaten. Overall, high danger scoring chances were 14-4, heavily lopsided in favor of the Lightning. 

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