The Montreal Canadiens scored early and often in Game 4, and will head back north of the border for Game 5 on home ice after a 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
Andrei Markov and Max Pacioretty scored within the first ten minutes of the contest, and David Desharnais gave his team an insurmountable 3-0 lead at the 5:08 mark of the second period. Ben Bishop was subsequently pulled as the Lightning starter coughed up a soft one by failing to glove the seemingly innocuous wrist shot.
By the end of the period, Montreal had amassed a 5-1 lead, and while Tampa Bay scored 17 seconds into the third to make things slightly more interesting, the Canadiens staved off elimination and live to play at least one more game.
Star Performer: Pacioretty led the way offensively for the Canadiens, recording a short-handed breakaway goal on Bishop and adding a pair of assists in over 17 minutes of play.
Game 4 marked Pacioretty's first multi-point performance of the playoffs, and he'll have to keep the offense going if his team has any chance of coming all the way back in the series.
Turning Point: The starting goalie is often pulled in an attempt to spark the rest of the lineup, and, in Jon Cooper's dream scenario, the decision to call Andrei Vasilevskiy into action could have been a turning point in this one.
But it wasn't meant to be, as Vasilevskiy allowed Montreal to score two goals in 15 seconds less than five minutes after hitting the ice, sealing his club's fate.
Goalie Comparison: Desharnais' goal, which stood as the game-winner, summed up Bishop's night quite well.
As mentioned above, his understudy didn't fare much better, while Carey Price picked up the win while allowing a pair of goals after the game was ostensibly decided.
| GOALIE | SHOTS | GA | SAVES | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Bishop | 14 | 3 | 11 | .786 |
| Andrei Vasilevskiy | 25 | 3 | 22 | .880 |
| Carey Price | 24 | 2 | 22 | .917 |
Top Highlight: When the dust settled, the nicest play of the evening was the first of the game's seven goals.
The goal was created by Montreal's top defensive pair, as P.K. Subban danced his way through the offensive zone before finding Andrei Markov, who went top shelf on Bishop with a nice wrist shot.
(Courtesy: NHL.com)
Stat of the Night: With the win, the Canadiens ended a losing streak that dated all the way back to last year's playoffs.
The @CanadiensMTL earned their first win over the Lightning since April 22, 2014 (Game 4 of FR), snapping an 8-game skid in 2014-15 (0-7-1).
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 8, 2015
Series at a Glance:
Game 1: Lightning 2, Canadiens 1
Game 2: Lightning 6, Canadiens 2
Game 3: Lightning 2, Canadiens 1
Game 4: Canadiens 6, Lightning 2
Game 5: Saturday, May 9, 7:00 p.m. ET
Game 6*: Tuesday, May 12 (TBD)
Game 7*: Thursday, May 14 (TBD)
* If necessary
