About Last Night: Jakub Dobes shows he’s a playoff performer with 38-save win in Game 5
The Montreal Canadiens are a win away from advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Goaltender Jakub Dobes made 38 saves in a 3-2 regulation win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 on Wednesday at Benchmark International Arena.
The Habs received more heroics on offence from Kirby Dach and Alexandre Texier, who each scored a goal. Texier scored the game-winner at 1:06 of the third period.
Forward Brendan Gallagher returned to the lineup after sitting out the entirely of the playoffs thus far as a healthy scratch. He scored three minutes into the game, and was efficient in 6:48 of ice-time, with three hits and +1 rating.
Gallagher replaced Oliver Kapanen. Here’s his goal that gave Montreal an early 1-0 lead on the road.
Still in the first, the Habs were given a glorious opportunity after Ryan McDonagh was issued a double-minor for high-sticking, but the power play never got going. Dobes’s aggressive puck handling provided the only entertainment during the man-advantage.
The Canadiens and Lightning had a see-saw battle on the scoresheet in the second period. It started with Dominic James beating Dobes on a 2-on-1 to tie the game 1-1.
Just 11 seconds later, Dach pulled off what Habs fans have been clamouring for during his four years in Montreal: he used his big body to drive the net and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to regain the lead for Montreal.
But in a replay of Game 4, Tampa Bay found a way to stall Montreal’s momentum with a late second-period goal. The Canadiens got roasted yet again on a 2-on-1: this time Mike Matheson’s wide shot allowed Jake Guentzel to skate up the ice and beat Dobes five-hole to draw even.
So far this series, the Lightning have been the better team in the third period, and the Canadiens needed to reverse the trend. They didn’t wait long.
Just after the opening minute of the final frame, defenceman Lane Hutson hit Texier with a stretch pass. Texier’s shot coming down the left side handcuffed Vasilevskiy, who got a piece of it but not enough. Nick Suzuki got his first even-strength point of the series.
Dobes handled the rest. He stopped all 17 shots he faced in the third and weathered a final push from Tampa Bay at 6-on-5 with their goalie pulled.
With the win, the Canadiens return home with a chance to close out the series in six games at the Bell Centre on Friday (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). But the way things are going, one goal is all it would take to send the series back to Tampa. So far, all five games have been decided by a single goal, with three coming in overtime.
A positive sign? Historically, the Habs are 7-1 all-time in Game 6’s at home when looking to close out a series.
The Canadiens dominated in a couple of statistical categories: 33-17 in faceoffs and 37-23 in hits. In a penalty-laden series, the referees mostly kept the whistles away last night. Montreal’s only man advantage came on the McDonagh double minor, while the Canadiens gave the Lightning two unforced errors with delay-of-game calls. But both clubs went 0-fer on the PP.
It was another quiet night for the top line, which wasn’t really the top line by the end as coach Martin St. Louis started to tinker as the game progressed. The liveblog commenters on the Hockey Inside Out YouTube livestream could not believe Cole Caufield was held to just one shot. Juraj Slafkovsky was also held off the scoresheet and made the commenters sweat after a late icing.
The Habs have managed to win without contributions from their star forwards outside of Game 1, but if they want to prevent pushing the series to the limit, Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovsky will likely need to come through in Friday’s potential clincher.
A sign of how things were going? With the game on the line, Phillip Danault played the game’s final 3:31 without stepping off the ice. Caufield played only 3:24 in the third period.
Caufield and Slafkovsky landed near the bottom on last night’s Game Score card. The liveblog commenters were also hoping for the return of injured defenceman Noah Dobson this weekend, because after a strong start, Mike Matheson and Alexandre Carrier could now use some help.
Pretty shocking that Dobes wasn’t named one of the game’s three stars. But there’s no doubting the three stars of last night’s comments.
3. Let’s not count our chickens before they hatch. We pulled one out tonight but this is far from over.
2. All should be good, unless the brain-dead Bell Centre crowd starts Olé-ing in the 2nd period again.
1. Friday will be off the charts.
